Compiled by Glenn Roadley, NatSCA Committee Member, Curator of Natural Science at The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery.

Welcome to the November 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. We are keen to hear from you if you have any top tips and recommendations for our next Digest, please drop an email to blog@natsca.org.

Sector News

GCG AGM and seminar – Building bridges between collectors and museums

The Geological Curators Group will be holding their annual AGM and seminar on November 28^th – topics will include:

• Many important specimens are held in private collections. How can museums gain an understanding of the scope of these collections and the needs of collectors?
• How can museums gain the trust of collectors and start to find ways to work around the sometimes strict conditions imposed upon them?
• How do collectors feel that museums can improve the way that they deal with such donations?
• Lack of ‘proof of legal ownership’ or ‘documentation of permission to collect’ can be major sticking points for museums; however, such provenance was rarely required or given historically (or even more recently). How can we ensure that important historic specimens can be integrated into museum collections? Do we need a more flexible approach to the ‘ownership’ of geological specimens collected from casual sites that are not SSSI’s or other protected statuses?
• What can we learn from previous experiences?
• Can museums produce advice to help private collectors to document their collections and highlight or label specimens that might ideally end up in a museum in the future?

For more information and to register, see the GCG website: https://www.geocurator.org/events/162-50th-annual-general-meeting-and-winter-seminar

Online Training Workshop: An Introduction to Natural Science Legislation: Thursday 23rd November (9.30 – 16.00).

This workshop, organised by NatSCA, aims to cover some of the legislation that it helps to be aware of when caring for natural science collections. Subjects will include: CITES relating to plants and animals, copyright and intellectual property rights, poisons in herbaria, loans (including shipping and packing) and the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and Human Tissue Act 2004 in relation to museum collections

We will be welcoming speakers from a range of backgrounds to give a broad scope of experience – Alan Paton (Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew), Michelle Lancaster (Human Tissue Authority), Amalyah Keshet (Naomi Korn Associates), Rachel Webster (Manchester Museum), Nichola Burnett (Joint Nature Conservancy Council (JNCC)), Amy Geraghty (National Museum of Ireland).

This mixture of talks will provide a great opportunity to ask experts questions if you are dealing with something unfamiliar or would like an up-to-date summary on some of these topics, with pointers of where you can go to get more in-depth information.

Cost: This workshop is FREE for members (please email membership@natsca.org for your membership code.) Non members = £10

For any non-members out there, you can join NatSCA for the annual fee of £20. The price difference between this course’s member and non-member rate is only £10 and you could then enjoy benefits such as our lunchtime chats once a month and the journal! Please email training@natsca.org to find out more. Bursaries considered for students/low income.

You can find more information on our webpage: https://www.natsca.org/law-2023 and on register on the event page: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/an-introduction-to-natural-science-collections-legislation-tickets-750854495007

If you have any questions please feel free to email the NatSCA Training Team: training@natsca.org.

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

What to Do

Vintage Litter Museum Opens in Suffolk

The Vintage Litter Museum is now open to visitors in Woolbridge, Suffolk, 10am to 2pm every Friday. Growing from a ‘virtual museum’ on the Rubbish Walks website, the new physical site will feature over 450 pieces of litter picked from beach cleans and other areas around Suffolk. Clubs, activities and workshops will aim to raise awareness of littering and its effects on the environment.

What to Read

On the NatSCA blog this month, Jack Ashby, Assistant Director of the University Museum of Zoology, Cambridge provides some valuable advice for those looking to get started with decolonial research.

Ruth Cowlishaw of Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine writes of the conservation and research of the Dagnall Laboratory’s entomology collections and X-ray slides, in addition to developing new teaching resources. The project has already created a number of access opportunities including displays and partnerships with World Museum Liverpool.

We have new blogs being published every month, so keep your eyes peeled for new articles in November or if you would like to submit an article for 2024, contact blog@natsca.org.

Where to Work

The Natural History Museum, London is currently looking for someone to fill the role of Moves Conservator as part of the NHM Unlocked project. Successful applicants will work closely with curatorial staff to identify specimens with complex needs and to develop packaging and transport requirements.

Further north, National Museums Scotland is recruiting a Head of Collections Services who will work to develop, protect and enable access to Scotland’s national collection, spanning 12.6 million objects.

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.