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 28th – 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
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