Compiled by Glenn Roadley, NatSCA Committee Member, Curator of Natural Science at The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery.
Welcome to the June edition of NatSCA Digital Digest.
A monthly blog series featuring 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 Lunchtime Chats
The new lunchtime chats are for members only and run on the last Thursday of every month. In our last session we heard from Hannah Clarke at the University of Aberdeen, presenting ‘The Marvellous Molluscs Project – Lessons Learnt So Far’.
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. There will be shaky walks through stores by mobile, demos, plain pieces to camera or traditional PowerPoints if that’s the best way to share images and info. For those who want to take part please email training@natsca.org to put forward your idea; if a stable internet connection for what you want to achieve is tricky we can put up a pre-recorded video and then speakers can jump in at the end for the discussion.
Bring your sandwiches and a cuppa and we hope to see you on the day! 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
The Diving Museum in Hampshire is hosting an illustrated talk with underwater photographer Charles Erb for a photographic tour of the surprising and often under-appreciated beautiful scenery and wildlife around our shores. Join them on July 9th for stunning photographs of underwater Britain as you’ve never seen it before.
The University of Dundee’s Botanic Garden is celebrating its 50th birthday until June 24th with an exhibition that celebrates the achievement, showing how a former potato field in the city’s west end has become a valued community space with an impact well beyond anything its founders could have imagined.
What To Read
We’ve had two great new entries to the blog this month. Fernando A. Cervantes, Professor and Curator of Mammals, Department of Zoology, Instituto de Biología, UNAM, writes about the important vertebrate collections of the Institute of Biology, UNAM, and their move to the new building of the National Biodiversity Pavilion in Mexico City.
Piotr Korpak, Visitor Team Assistant, Manchester Museum, The University of Manchester, details the documentation of the museum’s silk and cocoon collection.
Over on the GCG blog, there’s a new piece by Zoë Hughes, Curator of Brachiopods and Fossil Cephalopods, and Katie Collins, Curator of Benthic Molluscs, at the Natural History Museum, London. They write about how valuable students can be as a resource when carrying out large-scale tasks. MSc Taxonomy and Biodiversity students from University College London were able to help in the massive task of identifying type specimens in the Cephalopod, Brachiopod, and Benthic Mollusc Collections.
Where To Work
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew are looking for three Fungarium curators, two permanent full-time and one part-time post. Visit their webpage for more information.
UCL is recruiting a curatorial and collections assistant for the Grant Museum. You can find out more here.
The NHM has had a wealth of job opportunities available of late, those remaining include a Curatorial Assistant (Insects), and Senior Curator in Charge (Fish) but get in quick as the closing dates are very close!
Before You Go…
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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