Introduction to Museum Studies

Katherine Burton Jones has taught in the Museum Studies Program at the Harvard Extension School for the last decade and has served as research advisor for the program since it moved from a certificate program to a masters degree in 2004. She was assistant dean for information technology and media services at the Harvard Divinity School for nine years.

Jones volunteers for non-profits in the New England area. She is a member of the board of directors and chairs the Museum Committee of the International Tennis Hall of Fame and Museum in Newport, RI. She is a member of the board of the Metropolitan Waterworks Museum in Chestnut Hill, MA.

Jones was an assistant director at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology from 1994 to 2000, where she introduced the importance of websites and multimedia to all of the Harvard museums. She was responsible for raising funds for the various public-facing technology projects, including the virtual exhibit Against the Winds: American Indian Running Traditions. While at the Peabody, she served on the boards of the Museum Computer Network and the Massachusetts Audubon Society's Mildred Morse Allen Center.

Jones edited and contributed to two books on the use of technology in museums, The Wired Museum (American Association of Museums, 1997), and Museum Informatics: People, Information, and Technology in Museums (with Paul F. Marty, Routledge, 2007). She had two books pullished in 2025, The Invisible History of Museum Computing with Paul F. Marty (Bloomsbury) and Museums and Digital Maturity with Lauren M. Vargas (Routledge). In addition, she has authored numerous articles on topics related to museums and given presentations as national and regional museum conferences for the last two decades.