Compiled by Olivia Beavers, Assistant Curator of Vertebrate Zoology at World Museum, National Museums Liverpool.
Welcome to the December edition of NatSCA Digital Digest.
This is the last Digest of 2023 – packed full of festive activities and the latest on where to go, what to see and do in the natural history sector including jobs, exhibitions, conferences and training opportunities. If you have any top tips and recommendations for our next Digest please drop an email to blog@natsca.org.
Sector News
NatSCA Conference & AGM 2024 – SAVE THE DATE & CALL FOR PAPERS
The Annual Conference & AGM of the Natural Sciences Collections Association will be held on Thursday 18th and Friday 19th April 2024 in the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. The first day will include the AGM, presentations, and lightning talks. The second day will include presentations in the morning, followed by gallery and collection tours in the afternoon.
Trials and Triumphs: sharing practice across the museum sector
The #NatSCA2024 conference invites proposals for presentations on a broad range of themes. We seek ideas from the natural history collections community, educators, collaborators, and beyond. We are interested in practical lessons, unique solutions, new collaborations, and to show what has and hasn’t worked with projects. We are looking for presentations that touch on every aspect of museum operations, including audience engagement, collections management practices, changing laws, social justice, restitution and decolonisation, environmental issues, global challenges, research and academic engagement.
This practical conference aims to celebrate triumphs and amplify successes in museums, but also highlight the pitfalls and lessons learned from situations that didn’t go as planned. We will prioritise papers that focus on sharing ideas, tools, and guidance rather than simply reporting results. We want to make this conference practical and useful, so please try to reflect this in your abstract.
While we have a focus on natural science collections, we recognise that we can learn from others in the wider museum sector, and we welcome submissions from anyone who wishes to share techniques and ideas with broader relevance and application.
Papers can be presented in any of several formats: A 20-minute presentation (consisting of a 15-minute talk followed by 5 minutes of Q&A) or a 5-minute lightning talk. Talks (both lightning and longer) can be presented in person or by submission of a pre-recorded presentation, with the option of an in-person or live stream Q&A (via Zoom).
Deadline for submission: 5pm GMT Friday 19th January. Please email conference@natsca.org with any questions.
SPNHC – TDWG 2024
The Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections is joining with Biodiversity Information Standards to deliver a joint conference in 2024. The SPNHC-TDWG joint conference will be held at the Okinawa Convention Center 2nd – 6th September 2024. The call for proposals to organise sessions and abstracts for individual contributions will go out in the new year.
An Introduction to Natural Science Collections Legislation: Talks now available online.
The NatSCA Training Team would like to thank those of you that attended the above seminar. They had numerous requests for recordings from those that could not attend, or for people that would like to refer back to them in future. They have now uploaded all of the talks to YouTube and put the links on the website. Rather than create a third page with law-related things, we have pulled together the resources from both the 2016 and 2023 events to the existing ‘Collections and the Law’ page so everything is available in the same place: https://www.natsca.org/policies-legislation. If you scroll down the page, all of the subjects that have [YouTube] next to them are the ones from the seminar.
As with the 2023 conference we haven’t had chance to do subtitles yet, but the sound was pretty good this time so we are hoping that auto-generated captions will be ok. At some point in the future we will have a go at tidying up any errors.
New Understanding Zooarchaeology II short course at the University of Sheffield
After the success of the last September face-to-face short courses, the Sheffield Zooarchaeology team is back with a brand new version of Understanding Zooarchaeology II. For the first time the course will run for 4 days (instead of 2!!), from the 2nd to the 5th of April 2024, covering the more detailed aspects of zooarchaeology, incorporating advanced techniques in the analysis of animal bones with the support of specialised experts.
To book a place to Understanding Zooarchaeology II short course, please follow this link: https://onlineshop.shef.ac.uk/conferences-and-events/faculty-of-arts-and-humanities/archaeology
Understanding Zooarchaeology II is directed to archaeologists, students and enthusiasts who already have some basic knowledge of zooarchaeology.
If you would like to know more about our short courses, please visit them at: https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/archaeology/short-courses/zooarchaeology or get directly in touch with the organisers – Angela Maccarinelli, Ewan Chipping & Lenny Salvagno by email at: zooarch-shortcourse@sheffield.ac.uk
The Society for the History of Natural History’s 2nd Early Career Researcher Symposium
This symposium will take place online on Thursday 22 February 2024. They welcome papers on any aspect of the history of natural history. Abstracts have to be submitted by 15 December 2023. For this symposium they welcome papers from across the field which speak to any aspects of the history of natural history. The only restriction is that eligible speakers must be individuals registered for PhD programmes or within 3 years of being awarded their doctorate. For more information please visit: https://shnh.org.uk/news/call-for-papers-for-ecr-symposium-22-february-2024/.
The Geological Curator 11(8) Online First articles
Members of GCG can now access the first three articles of Geological Curator 11 (8). The issue is due to be published in print in December 2023. Members of GCG can follow this link for early access to the first three articles. A quick reminder that GCG membership fees for 2024 are also due on January 1st.
Colonial Histories of Australian Mammal Collections in Cambridge: A New Resource.
University Museum of Zoology has just launched a new web resource exploring the colonial histories of many of the donors and collectors of Australian mammals in their collection, who are also represented in other museums. It aims to shed light on the links between natural history and troubling colonial history, and identify those people who contributed so much expertise to the history of science and museums, but who were typically omitted from popular accounts of these histories.
NatSCA Lunchtime Chats
The new lunchtime chats are for members only and run on the last Thursday of every month.
This series is supposed to be informal; no fancy equipment is needed; it will be put out over the NatSCA Zoom platform and there is no fixed format. For those who want to take part please email training@natsca.org to put forward your idea. All members will have received a link to join via Zoom (the same link works for all sessions) – if you haven’t, get in touch with membership@natsca.org
Where to Visit
If you’re looking for some festive fun visit @CardiffCurator on twitter where National Museum Cardiff’s #MuseumAdvent is still going strong.
The Language of Life – Biochemical Etymology Workshop
Come and learn about the origins of scientific vocabulary and where the terms we use for chemicals in the body come from. You will hear a short talk filled with examples from ongoing research at the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology before collaborating on an activity to explore some more well-known names with the help of biochemists and linguists from The University of Manchester. This session is suitable for the general public (approximately from secondary school age and above), particularly those interested in molecules, life sciences or the meanings and histories of words.
Presented by the Linguistic Diversity Collective in partnership with Creative Manchester and Manchester Museum as part of Manchester City of Literature‘s International Mother Language Day celebrations. This workshop takes place on February 21st 1:00pm – 2:00pm at Manchester Museum. Admission is free and you can register to secure your place here.
Lyme Regis Museum
As well as their Fossil Hunting Walks which will run throughout the festive season, Lyme Regis Museum also has a Fossil Polishing event on December 29th 2:00 pm – 4:00pm. You can learn about the amazing ammonites that lived in the Jurassic seas of Lyme Regis 200 million years ago and polish your own special fossil to take home. The activity is free with Museum admission with a small charge for your chosen fossil.
Audio Described Tour: Wildlife in Wales
National Museum Cardiff presents Audio Described Tours: Wildlife in Wales on January 18th 2024. A free tour for blind and visually impaired visitors who will explore the Natural History Galleries at National Museum Cardiff through audio description. You can click here to book your ticket.
What to Read
‘Tis the season for a lot of reading…
Interested in Fungi and photogrammetry? Photogrammetry: a new Tool for Fungi? Explores the ability to build 3D models of fungi using only a mobile phone! Read more on the potential of photogrammetry for mycologists in the field and elsewhere in the article by Edward Dearberg and Nathan Smith.
‘Taxidermy and the Country House: Where Natural History meets Social History‘, the latest book from Pat Morris, is now available to purchase. Book review to follow next year!
Archives of Natural History: Vol 50, No 2 is out now! Some of the great articles in the collection can be accessed here.
Jack Ashby has a new article “How collections and reputation were built out of Tasmanian violence: thylacines (Thylacinus cynocephalus) and Aboriginal remains from Morton Allport (1830–1878)” which is now available to read. It uses Allport and the events in Tasmania as a focus to explore the entwined human and environmental costs of the colonial project. It’s free to access here in Archives of Natural History and some of the key findings for this article are summarised in The Conversation.
The oldest disease-causing fungus on record has been found in the Natural History Museum’s collections. It has been named in honour of author and fungi fan Beatrix Potter! Find out more in the article – Fungus named after Beatrix Potter is one of the earliest plant pests by James Ashworth.
Walking in the Footsteps of Sauropods is an article by Matthew Butler, a work experience student, who writes about their latest adventure on the Dinosaur Trackways Field Workshop.
There are three new NatSCA blogs to get stuck into this month. Up first is Patricia Francis, Natural History Curator, Gallery Oldham who writes about How to reimagine a 117 year old Diorama of Seabirds for a 2021 gallery. Our second blog by Madalyne Epperson, MA Conservation Practice student, Durham University, features the conservation story of Paddy the Pangolin – a taxidermy tree pangolin once feared lost after the Cambridge French West Africa Expedition in 1957. The third blog, Putting Natural History Museums to Work for Human Rights written by Henry McGhie, Curating Tomorrow, celebrates the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and details how museums are related to the original Declaration.
The Herbarium Handbook – Sharing best practice from across the globe
A key new addition to Kew Publishing’s series of handbooks, including The Plant Glossary and The Temperate Plant Families Identification Handbook. A new version of a book first compiled and edited by Kew botanists some thirty-four years ago. It is an inclusive and accessible guide reflective of contemporary herbarium practises. The book is a richly illustrated reference tool intended to help with training the next generation of staff, interns and volunteers, share ideas on best practice, techniques and workflows.
Editors: Nina Davies, Clare Drinkell, Timothy Utteridge. 290 pp, 234 x 156 mm. Over 700 colour photographs. Paperback, ISBN 9781842467695. Kew Publishing, TW9 3AE, UK 2023. £25.00 https://shop.kew.org/kew-herbarium-handbook
Seeking New NatSCA Blog Posts for 2024
As the year draws to a close, Jen is seeking blog posts for February onwards, so if you have something in the pipeline that you would love to tell everyone about, drop her a line! This is an excellent opportunity to book yourself in a slot for any time in the year.
If you are interested but have any questions, please email blog@natsca.org. You can also find guidelines on how to contribute here: Guidelines for contributions to the NatSCA blog | NatSCA.
Where to Work
The Lyme Regis Museum has two new opportunities: a Fossil Walk Guide and a Learning and Engagement Officer. Deadline for applications is 6pm Friday 5th January. You can find out more about these positions here: https://www.lymeregismuseum.co.uk/about-us/vacancies/ .
The Natural History Museum London has a range of fixed term, full time opportunities. Postdoctoral Researcher, GOTT Biodiversity Modelling, Research Assistant, Disease Ecology Data Assistant, Bioinformatician, Global Change Disease Ecologist, Research Assistant, Biodiversity and Health. The closing date for all of the NHM roles above is December 18th 2023.
If you have any top tips and recommendations for our next Digest please drop an email to blog@natsca.org. Similarly, if you have something to say about a current topic, or perhaps you want to tell us what you’ve been working on, we welcome new blog articles so please drop Jen an email if you have anything you would like to submit.
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