Tag Archives for Seminar

NatSCA Digital Digest – October 2026

Compiled by Milo Phillips, Digitisation Co-ordinator at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.

Welcome to the October 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

MIDS Standard Public Review Now Open

The MIDS Task Group is pleased to announce that the public review of the Minimum Information about a Digital Specimen (MIDS) standard is now open.

MIDS gives collections a shared, measurable definition of what it means for a specimen to be “digitized”. It helps institutions prioritize digitization work, track progress consistently, and publish specimen data that are fit for research and reuse. MIDS complements existing standards such as Darwin Core and ABCD rather than replacing them.

The review begins on 5 October 2026 and will remain open until 4 December 2026. You can participate via the TDWG site here.

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NatSCA Digital Digest – September 2026

Compiled by Olivia Beavers, Assistant Curator of Vertebrate Zoology at World Museum, National Museums Liverpool.

Welcome to the September 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

Spare a thought for colleagues at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia

On September 1st the Academy announced that their museum will be closing at the end of September, shocking visitors around the world and staff across the museum. The main reasons cited for its closure seem to be financial stress and federal funding cuts. Although the museum building is closing on September 30th, it seems that plans are being put in place to protect the 19 million specimens in the collections. Whilst we wait to learn more, you can read the latest statement here.

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NatSCA Digital Digest – August 2026

Compiled by Ellie Clark, Curator of Fossil Cnidaria at the Natural History Museum.

Welcome to the August edition of NatSCA Digital Digest.

Digital Digest is 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

Entomological Skills Workshop at National Museums Northern Ireland

Join Buglife Northern Ireland Conservation Officer, Hannah, and National Museums Northern Ireland Curators for a workshop on collecting, preparing, and identifying insect specimens for conservation research.

The workshop is free and taking place on Saturday the 19th of September.

Book via their webpage. Age group 18 and above.

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The Past, Present and Future of the NatSCA Conference

By Eimear Ashe, Collections Moves Project Manager, National Museum of Ireland, Dublin.

Ulster Museum lecture theatre

NatSCA as a named subject specialist network and membership organisation, held its first conference in 2004 at the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin. This year, the conference took place in Northern Ireland for the first time — hosted by the Ulster Museum in the heart of Belfast. NatSCA has always sited its conference in the UK and Ireland. In the map below, green flags represent a museum that has hosted the conference once, and yellow stars represent sites that have hosted twice (Leeds and Dublin):

Where has NatSCA held its annual conferences?

This year’s programme was notably wide‑ranging, attracting a diverse mix of attendees from across the sector. Given my current role as Project Manager for the redevelopment of the Natural History Museum at the National Museum of Ireland, several talks particularly resonated with me. I was especially interested in the presentation by Lydia Amies and Emanuele Casafredda, which focused on stabilising and relocating fossil mammal collections. Collection moves and storage planning have been a recurring theme throughout my career, so it was really worthwhile seeing how colleagues elsewhere are tackling similar logistical and conservation challenges.

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NatSCA Digital Digest – June 2026

Compiled by Olivia Beavers, Assistant Curator of Vertebrate Zoology at World Museum, National Museums Liverpool.

Welcome to the June 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

Journal of Natural Science Collections – Call for Papers

The deadline for submissions to the 15th Volume of the Journal of Natural Science Collections is 30th June. If you have projects and practices to share that will benefit the museum community, please send your manuscript to editor@natsca.org

The Journal represents all areas of work with natural science collections, and includes articles on best practice and latest research across disciplines, including conservation, curation, learning, and exhibitions. Articles should be relevant and accessible to our diverse membership.

If you would like to contribute to the Journal, please contact the editor (editor@natsca.org) and see our guidelines for authors.

All submissions are peer reviewed, resulting in high quality articles. If you are interested in contributing to the Journal by acting as a reviewer, please contact editor@natsca.org, along with the areas of specialism you would be confident reviewing (e.g. bird curation, mineralogy, conservation techniques, etc). You can read our information for reviewers here.

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