Compiled by Milo Phillips, Digitisation Co-ordinator at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
Welcome to the April 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
NatSCA Annual Conference & AGM 2024
Not long now until the 2024 Annual Conference & AGM of the Natural Sciences Collections Association. Trials and Triumphs: sharing practice across the museum sector will be held next week, Thursday 18th and Friday 19th April 2024, in the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. This practical conference aims to celebrate triumphs and amplify successes in museums, but also highlights pitfalls and lessons learned from situations that didn’t go as planned.
Find more information, and the programme of talks and events on the event page here.
The Unnatural History Museum
The Unnatural History Museum series of talks brings together museum professionals, creatives and academics across disciplines to platform vital conversations about the museum mediation of the natural world during the sixth mass extinction.
The series unfolds over a series of themed Zoom sessions featuring short presentations, followed by a roundtable discussion. The third session, on “Deep Time”, will feature papers from and discussion with Diana Marsh (University of Maryland), Richard Fallon (Natural History Museum, London), and Shana van Hauwermeiren (Workshop Intangible Heritage).
The talk will be later this month, on Wednesday 24th April at 5pm Irish Standard Time.
Registration is free and more information can be found on the Eventbrite page here.
SPPC 2024 – Call for Abstracts
The Symposium on Palaeontological Preparation and Conservation is accepting submissions regarding work on all types of geological collections (not just palaeontology), for their upcoming conference.
Contact Lu Allington-Jones, Principle Conservator at the Conservation Centre, Natural History Museum London, for more information.
Online course “Care and Management of Natural History Collections”.
There may still be slots available for the live online course “Care and Management of Natural History Collections”.
Online live sessions on 9th, 11th, 16th, 18th, 23rd, and 25th of April, from 16:00 to 20:30 (Madrid time zone). Total course hours: 40; 27 hours of live sessions, plus 13 hours of pre-recorded lectures to watch asynchronously. Using a combination of lectures, discussions, demonstrations, and readings, this course will teach participants how to better care for and manage all natural history collections (including botany, geosciences, and zoology). For more information and to register, click here.
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
Edinburgh Science Festival 2024
This year’s Edinburgh Science Festival is in full swing and there’s still time to catch some brilliant talks before it wraps up. Running until April 14th with daytime and evening events hosted across the city at Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, National Museums Scotland, and the City Arts Centre, the festival is packed with science-fuelled exploration, from free interactive exhibits to family workshops and adult talks and events.
This year’s Science Festival has been exploring the theme Shaping the Future, showcasing on some of the cutting-edge science that can help to create a future that is sustainable, accessible and equal for all. Check here to see the event line up and book tickets. You can also check out the brochure here.
What to Read
Happy Birthday! The latest NatSCA blog is celebrating the Institute of Biology of the National Autonomous University of Mexico’s 95th birthday, where Fernando A. Cervantes and Yolanda Hortelano-Moncada take us on a tour through the institution, its botanical garden and field stations, looking at how they got to where they are, and what the future holds for ongoing natural science research.
Nature chats about how the recent total solar eclipse helps scientists to better understand and study the sun, and what we can learn from looking closely (but not toooo closely), at the complex coronas and streamers. Read more here.
Where to Work
The University of Cambridge and its Museum of Zoology are pleased to announce a fully funded collaborative doctoral studentship from October 2024 under the AHRC’s Collaborative Doctoral Partnership (CDP) Scheme, exploring Colonial Natural Historical Collecting in the South Asian Indian Ocean.
Details of the research, and information on applications can be found here: PhD Studentship: Colonial Natural Historical Collecting in the South Asian Indian Ocean. Applications close 12th May 2024. Interviews take place 11th June 2024.
There are still a number of jobs open at National Museums Ireland including a Preventive Conservator – Natural History Museum Capital Project; Registration Collections Assistant and Conservation Collections Assistant – Capital Projects, Natural History. Deadlines for applications are all on Friday 19th April. Click on the links for more details.
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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