Category Archives for Conference

NatSCA Digital Digest

Welcome to the weekly digest of posts from around the web with relevance to natural science collections. We hope you find this useful and if you have any articles that you feel would be of interest, please contact us at blog@natsca.org

1. Social Media: Museum Week on Twitter

24th to 30th March 2014

Synopsis

Museums across Europe are using the hashtag #MuseumWeek on twitter all this week. The aim is to improve the social media presence of museums by encouraging dialogue between both museums and the public, and between museum professionals. Alongside the weeklong hashtag #MuseumWeek there are individual daily themes, the remaining of which are as follows:

Thursday #BehindTheArt

Friday #AskTheCurator

Saturday #MuseumSelfies

Sunday #GetCreative

Everyone is encouraged to join in all week.

2. Blog: Work Experience from the Dinosaur Isle Museum

Alex Peaker, Dinosaur Isle Museum, Isle of Wight, and Emma Bernard, Natural History Museum, London

Synopsis

Alex Peaker is a curator at the Dinosaur Isle Museum on the Isle of Wight. He recently came to London to work with Emma Bernard, a curator at the NHM, for a week. Bernard begins the blog by talking of how important it is to maintain communications between museum professionals, and seeking help and advice from others when needed. Peaker describes his role at the Dinosaur Isle Museum and explains how invaluable the time he spent at the NHM was to him.

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/natureplus/community/research/earth_sciences_news/fossil_fish?fromGateway=true

Editor5807. Image free from copyright

Dinosaur Isle Museum, Isle of Wight. The building was designed to look like a huge Pterosaur. Image by Editor5807

3. Training: British Council – UCL Museum Training School

British Council and University College London

Synopsis

The closing date for applications to the British Council and UCL Museum Training School is 18th April. There are four courses to choose from, or you can register for multiple courses. They are:

How to build local, national and international partnerships
How to develop exhibitions
How to develop a schools and learning programme
How to develop community engagement programmes

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums/our-work/international/

Rhino

The next post is a bit harrowing, so here is a baby rhino playing to start you off on a high. (C) Emma-Louise Nicholls

4. Blog: Objects Safe After Cuming Museum Fire

Patrick Steel, Museums Association

Synopsis

Cuming Museum in London was struck by fire in March of last year, in which ‘two of three displays were lost’. One year on, Steel reports on the current location of the collections and the status of the Museum. The blog looks at how many specimens were lost and what types of conservation procedures were required for those that were damaged.

http://www.museumsassociation.org/museums-journal/news/25032014-cuming-museum-saves-all-but-30-objects?utm_source=ma&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=26032014

5. Survey: Testing the European Competency Framework for VET Collections Management

EU Leonardo project, the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences

A request from the Project:

‘In the EU Leonardo project ‘Testing the European Competency Framework for VET Collections Management’ (EUColComp), the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS) is responsible for WP 2 “Research training needs and stakeholder analysis”.  This 2-year project is coordinated by NHM London and started October 2013.

A  questionnaire to inventory past and present training resources in conservation and care of natural history collections, available in Europe (and beyond) is online at:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/survey_training_NHcollections

The results of the survey will be used to develop a ‘Vocational Education and Training’ curriculum to assist staff in developing the appropriate competencies.

If you provide training in the field of natural history collections conservation and care or if you are aware of training others provide, please spare 5 min of your time to help gather this valuable information.

Many thanks for your help with this!
Kind regards,
The EUColComp team

a Leonardo da Vinci Transfer of Innovation funded project’

 

Compiled by Emma-Louise Nicholls, NatSCA Blog Editor

NatSCA Digital Digest

Welcome to the weekly digest of posts from around the web with relevance to natural science collections. We hope you find this useful and if you have any articles that you feel would be of interest, please contact us at blog@natsca.org

1. Blog: A Day Out at Tring

Amy Freeborn, Natural History Museum London

Synopsis

This blog covers some of the history of the collections at Tring, and includes some interesting historical photos of the Museum and Rothschild’s estate as it was in the early 1900s. The author had the opportunity to see the preparation lab where beetles are used to clean flesh from carcasses, leaving skeletons fit for mounting. Some ‘wow-factor’ facts regarding the content of Tring Museum’s collections are also outlined.

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/natureplus/blogs/behind-the-scenes/2014/03/14/a-day-out-at-tring

The galleries at Tring Museum. Image by Robert Stainforth. Obtained from http://www.commons.wikimedia.org

2. Blog: Testing a European Competency Framework for VET in Collections Management

National Agency for Lifelong Learning

Synopsis

Access to, and use of, natural history collections are integral in facilitating research in the sector, but the ways in which these are facilitated vary between institutions. This article looks at the application of ‘best practice’ in terms of collections management, care, and conservation and describes a project that utilises the methods developed by the Natural History Museum, London to tackle the task of creating a standard for European collections.

http://www.adam-europe.eu/adam/project/view.htm?prj=10833&projLang=en#.UvpDWvtWsfg

3. Training: Pest Identification and Trapping Study Day

The Horniman Museum, London. 15th May 2014

Synopsis

An introduction to the management of museum pests. The day comprises lectures on subjects such as Integrated Pest Management schemes, as well as practical sessions that will give attendees the skills to identify various pest species. The Horniman Museum is used as a case study to illustrate an active pest management scheme. The highlight (having attended myself previously) is a pest based treasure hunt in the natural history galleries.

There is a limited number of places on this course so please get in touch with Libby Finney for details asap if you are interested. Email: lfinney@museumoflondon.org.uk

A horde of Anthrenus larvae on a bird skull. (C) UCL Grant Museum

4. Event: Geological Carbon Storage: Meeting the Global Challenge

Two day conference at the Geological Society at Burlington House. 14th-15th April 2014

Synopsis

Fossil fuels will undeniably be a significant component of energy supplies for ‘several decades at least’. This conference will focus on actions required to avoid serious negative environmental impacts caused by the burning of fossil fuels and the subsequent amount of CO2 that is released. Trapping CO2 and storing it underground (CCS) is a method of achieving this aim. Issues and policies will be discussed by delegates including members of government, industry, regulators and NGOs.

http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/carbonstorage14

Compiled by Emma-Louise Nicholls, NatSCA Blog Editor

NatSCA Digital Digest

Welcome to the weekly digest of posts from around the web with relevance to natural science collections. We hope you find this useful and if you have any articles that you feel would be of interest, please contact us at blog@natsca.org

1. Blog: Knowledge Network

Paolo Viscardi, Deputy Keeper of Natural History at Horniman Museum

Synopsis

Looking at Subject Specialist Networks and how this type of inter-museum communication can improve the sector as a whole. An ‘open line of communication’ encourages a quality control that is standard throughout museums, and allows for the incorporation of discussion with non museum based academics. The success of SSNs centres on workshops and conferences though time and money make these logistically difficult. Suggestions are made regarding solving these issues to perpetuate the benefit museums receive via SSNs.

http://www.museumsandheritage.com/advisor/news/item/3215

For your pleasure… A sloth bear skull, Melursus ursinus. Specimen LDUCZ-Z1637. (C) UCL Grant Museum

2. Blog: Museum Training for the World

Edmund Connolly, British Council-UCL Museum Training School Coordinator

Synopsis

The British Council and University College London have joined forces to launch the Museum Training School. Based in a variety of museums and galleries across London, this school will give early career museum professionals the opportunity to meet with staff from across the sector, and aims to arm attendees with the necessary skills to ensure ‘sustainability and growth’ of collections, galleries and museums for the future.

http://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/museums/2014/03/07/museum-training-for-the-world/

3. Event: How Museums Can Contribute to Wellbeing

One day event in Newcastle Upon Tyne

Synopsis

This event is aimed at a range of museum staff such as curators, managers, and those involved in education and outreach. it will look at how museums can focus on wellbeing and use it as a tool in relationships and collaborations with external organisations. It will also investigate ways of securing funding, building on the foundations of wellbeing as a concept.

http://www.museumsassociation.org/find-an-event/ev1062022?utm_source=ma&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=06032014#.Ux8JZNhKTwA

For further pleasure, the sloth bear skull from an exciting angle. Specimen LDUCZ-Z1637. (C) UCL Grant Museum

4. Event: Museum Week on Twitter

Contacts are @TwitterUK or museumweekuk@twitter.com

Synopsis

The 24th to 30th March is Museum Week on Twitter. The main hashtag #MuseumWeek will be the umbrella tag that will run all week long. Aside from this, there will be a specific theme, and relevant hashtag, each day, centred on topics related to museum and collections. It will be an opportunity to showcase parts of museums and collections that would otherwise not be accessible to the public. It also aims to give museum staff the chance to interact with each other through Twitter, and for both professionals and the general public to engage.

For more information, please contact Twitter on the above email or Twitter handle.

Compiled by Emma-Louise Nicholls, NatSCA Blog Editor

NatSCA Digital Digest

Welcome to the new weekly digest of posts from around the web with relevance to natural science collections. We hope you find this useful and if you have any articles that you feel would be of interest, please contact us at blog@natsca.org

1. Blog: Dr Woodward’s Fossils

Dr Ken McNamara, Sedgwick Museum of Geology

Synopsis

How the Sedgwick Museum began as a collection of 10,000 fossils ‘of all kinds’ belonging to John Woodward, and his bequest of £100 a year to ‘keep a lecturer’. The fossils were kept for 300 years in five beautiful walnut cabinets, pictured herein. Originally called the Woodwardian Museum, this blog looks at how Woodward helped to shape the museum, and the legacy he left behind.

http://blog.geolsoc.org.uk/2014/02/21/dr-woodwards-fossils/

Bothriolepis, a fossil fish. (C) UCL Grant Museum

2. Blog: What can Twitter do for our collection?

Giles Miller, Natural History Museum

Synopsis

Case study showed ‘major players’ retweeting you leads to a greater number of retweets and new followers. Timing of tweets is essential, e.g. weekend tweets hardly ever get retweeted. Twitter may not affect KPIs in a measurable manner, but it opens up the museum to an audience that would never otherwise visit for logistical reasons. It also facilitates access to parts of the collections that are not on display.

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/natureplus/blogs/micropalaeo/2014/02/18/how-did-twitter-help-our-collection

3. Event: The Future of Museums

A conference and workshop for early career museum professionals

Synopsis

Designed to collate the ideas of aspiring museum professionals, a series of talks and discussions will be followed by the opportunity for delegates to collaborate on a manifesto for museums and collections.

http://museumsshowoff.wordpress.com/the-future-of-museums/

4. Event: Human Evolution – The Story of Us

A four hour only pop-up event Friday 7th March at UCL

Synopsis

This mini exhibition will showcase rarely seen objects from UCL’s Biological Anthropology Collection of early hominin fossil casts, including Lucy, the famous Australopithecus afarensis from East Africa. The objects exhibited will also include tools and visitors will have the chance to ‘meet the scientists’. The event will take place in the Rock Room at UCL, which has permanent displays of geological collections.

http://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/museums/2014/02/27/human-evolution-the-story-of-us/

Neanderthal from BBC’s Prehistoric Autopsy exhibition at the Horniman Museum. (C) Paolo Viscardi

5. Event: Written in Stone: Life and Death in the Fossil record

Evening workshop at the Lapworth Museum of Geology, Birmingham

Synopsis

The workshop will be an interactive exploration of Cambrian organisms that formed part of the Cambrian Explosion and the subsequent Biodiversification Event of the Ordovician. These two points in Earth’s history are considered to be the foundations of the Earth’s biodiversity in the modern day.

http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/facilities/lapworth-museum/news/2014/28Feb-Written-in-Stone-Life-and-Death-in-the-Fossil-record.aspx

Compiled by Emma-Louise Nicholls, NatSCA Blog Editor

Can the natural science collection community really do anything about climate change?

MAconf2013I attended November’s Museums Association conference in Liverpool to talk, for NatSCA, on how having a natural science curator in your midst will help your museum to be greener. The session I was involved in, ‘Dead Zoos’, looked at addressing environmental issues from the natural science collection viewpoint.

Both Darren Mann and Henry McGhie spoke eloquently and sensibly about our unique position as natural scientists. We can engage all walks of life with nature and, as a consequence, we can also instil a sense of protectiveness. This, of course, includes caring about our changing climate.

I’ve heard him speak about this before but Henry’s admiration of the RSPB’s ‘giving nature a home’ campaign is always thought-provoking. The RSPB have set out to give people a framework for helping nature directly, and the public have responded.

Several of the questions from the floor asked for practical help in using their natural science collections (with or without a specialist curator) to open up discussions on green issues in their museums. Engaging people – on a wide scale – with nature is easy, a hedgehog really does speak for itself. Natural science specimens need little curatorial input to be engaging and so interpretation can easily be turned to thinking about protecting the environment. Case studies abound from Darren’s entomology collection as well as examples like the Yorkshire Museum’s Tansy Beetle reintroduction in the museum’s garden.

Last but not least it was great to attend a natural science session devoid of whinging. We talked about the positive future, not the negative past. Attendance wasn’t phenomenal, 45ish, but it wasn’t terrible. I would like to see future MA conference sessions that don’t necessarily concentrate on natural science but instead include it as an integral part of a wider topic. That would be progress.

Clare Brown