The more things change, the more they stay the same, the old saying goes.

And that’s more or less what John Burroughs hopes happens at the Rogers Historical Museum.

In 2013, Burroughs was accorded the good fortune to fill the very big shoes of Gaye Bland, director of the Rogers Historical Museum until her retirement Oct. 26.

“I think the biggest challenge will be building my own identity as director now,” he says. “After 22 years, people in Rogers just identify Gaye with the museum.”

But Burroughs’ long association with Bland helped make the transition a smooth one at animportant time in the museum’s development.

“Gaye and I worked together very well during the nearly six years that I was her assistant director,” he says. “There was little that she did that I wasn’t involved in as well. We worked closely on reaccreditation of the museum and planning for expansion, (and) Gaye and I also worked closely on exhibits and had a similar style for presenting information, which will continue as we go forward.

“Fundraising and expansion are first and foremost on our minds these days,” Burroughs goes on. “We’re making progress on matching our National Endowment for the Humanities Challenge Grant toward the new facility, and our expansion exhibit designs are really taking shape. We have a lot of exciting new ideas that will make this one of the best history museums in the region.

“We’re already doing a great job, but we see this as the opportunity to do more for the community,” he adds. “We’ve seen the demand for the public and want to offer more exhibits about this wonderful part of the country and more programs for visitors and students. But one of the biggest challenges that we have at the moment is for collections space: We are quickly running out of it. ”

Burroughs, however, has not run out of his boyhood fascination with “hearing people talk about the past.” Born and raised in southern Illinois, he says “history never seemed separate from the present to me. It seems I can always find connections to the past around us.

“This job just seemed tailored to my training and interests. The challenge of museum expansion, I must say, also seemed to interest me.”

Right now, Burroughs says, “our biggest goal is to make the new museum a reality. In some ways though, we’re running two museums and have two sets of goals. As we go forward we’re continuing to offer our programs for schools, and we have some great exhibits planned for our current galleries in 2014.”

Whats Up, Pages 12 on 12/20/2013