Category Archives for Social Media

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: Eton College, Natural History Museum

George Fussey, Curator, and colleagues

Synopsis

Rather than drawing your attention to a specific article on this blog, I am rather pointing out that this blog exists in case you hadn’t yet come across it. Having been to the Natural History Museum at Eton College myself, I can tell you that it is well worth the visit. I had the great pleasure of being shown around the Museum by Curator George Fussey, and there are certainly treasures to be seen there. I encourage you to have a look at this blog, it may be one of great interest to many people in our sector.

Eton College, Natural History Museum Blog

If you think our platy is a fatty, you should see the one at Eton! Specimen LDUCZ-Z20 (C) UCL / Grant Museum

If you think the Grant Museum’s platy is a fatty (above), you should see the one at Eton! Specimen LDUCZ-Z20 (C) UCL / Grant Museum

2. Conference: Radiation and Extinction: Investigating Clade Dynamics in Deep Time

The Linnean Society of London, 10-11th November 2014

Synopsis

To address the issues in the modern day caused by global warming, this conference aims to look at the past. It will focus on:

“Determining the causes and drivers of evolutionary dynamics is central to our understanding of life on Earth. What factors shaped the modern biota? Why did some groups go extinct, whilst others survived and radiated? Why are some groups so much more diverse than others? What will happen to organisms as the Earth continues to warm up?”

Radiation and Extinction: Investigating Clade Dynamics in Deep Time

A representative of extinction- the dodo head cast. Specimen LDUCZ-Y86 (C) UCL / Grant Museum

A representative of extinction- the dodo head cast at the Grant Museum of Zoology. Specimen LDUCZ-Y86 (C) UCL / Grant Museum

3. Training: Documentation Training Course

Museum of London, Docklands, 25th April 2014

Synopsis

Museum volunteers are invited to attend this course run as part of the Regional Museums Development programme. The course is designed to look at how to deal with issues of documentation, as well as the theory behind collections management.

Contact kwebbgreen@museumoflondon.org.uk to book.

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. 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