Tag Archives for Seminar

Caring For Entomology Collections

Seminar series to explore basic entomology collections management, curation and conservation techniques.

NHM (Natural History Museum), South Kensington, London 9.30am – 4.30pm Friday 1st November 2013

Cost £34 for members or £49 for non-members (remember that becoming a member is just £15 a year!).

This course will cover all basic aspects of collections management for entomological collections, including storage and handling of specimens, loans and legislation, and specimen preparation.

There will be specialist sessions including Integrated Pest Management, storage facilities, spirit curation, specimen pinning, molecular collections, basic slide preparation, documentation and databasing. Tours of the collection areas will also occur.

The course will be both theory and practical supported by a booklet covering both aspects.

Schedule (TBC):

9:30 -10:00 Introduction and Coffee

10:00 -10:30 Entomological Storage

10:30 -11:00 IPM

11:00 – 11:30 Morning Coffee

11:30 – 12:00 Digitisation

12:00 – 12:30 Data-basing

12:30 – 2:00 Lunch

2:00 – 2:30 Specimen pinning

2:30 – 3:00 Slide preparation

3:00 – 3:30 Afternoon Coffee

3:30 – 4:00 molecular collections

4:00 – 4:30 Spirit collections

Download booking form

Contacts:

For further information: Erica McAlister – e.mcalister@nhm.ac.uk

For booking & payment: Holly Morgenroth – holly.morgenroth@exeter.gov.uk

To become a member: Maggie Reilly – maggie.reilly@glasgow.ac.uk

Subject Specialist Networking

NatSCA is the Subject Specialist Network (SSN) for natural science collections in the UK. This means that we provide a mechanism for communicating about advances in theory and practice in the sector, as well as supporting the development of staff – both specialists and those generalists with responsibilities for mixed collections.

In general SSNs are viewed a valuable resource and are seen as intrinsic to Arts Council England’s (ACE) plans for the museum sector – at least that’s what we were told by a representative of ACE at NatSCA’s recent 20th anniversary conference at the Yorkshire Museum.

The conference topic of ‘Policy and Practice’ focused on strategic issues and practical projects that have contributed towards policy and procedure formulation and testing. I won’t go into a blow-by-blow account of the meeting, which ranged from legislation affecting asbestos and radioactive materials in collections, to the practicalities of choosing and implementing a method for collection reviews and the benefits and pitfalls of disposal.

The meeting opened with a call for greater positive advocacy of natural science collections in a talk that can be summarised as “we need to stop bloody moaning and do something positive”. It was a well received sentiment, despite the fact that in some instances it can be hard to be positive.

The buzzing of the grapevine revealed dark deeds in a university (involving a skip and a departmental collection with notable specimens) and mounting clouds over the National Museum of Wales where cuts are looming, with the sciences bracing to take the brunt. Nevertheless, there was a remarkably positive feeling to the meeting as a whole and some healthy discussion arose that continued well into the early hours of the morning.

conference_meal

The NatSCA conference meal in York 2013. A lot of people and a lot of discussion!

One particular topic that saw a robust response was an NHM call for a national strategy for collections. After decades of the NHM focussing on their global placement the audience was
sceptical about the factors driving this change of focus. Rob Huxley from the NHM performed well on the spot and may have begun the slow work of winning over a surprisingly hostile crowd when he acknowledged that national museums often have lessons to learn from their smaller counterparts.

The full proceedings of the meeting will be published later this year in the new peer-reviewed Journal of Natural Science Collections. I would recommend taking a look if you want to find out how to non-destructively sample parchment for protein analysis, simplify your loan procedures or conduct a review of a quarter of a million objects in just one year.

This article is based on a piece originally written for the Museums Association website.

Useful information for the NatSCA conference in York

Don’t you hate it when everyone else seems to know where they’re going and what’s going on, but you somehow missed the memo and are left in the dark? It can be a particular problem at conferences held in unfamiliar cities, so we’ve decided to pull together a guide to the plans for the forthcoming conference in York to help make sure there is more time spent discussing interesting developments in natural science collections and less time discussing where everybody else has vanished to.

For the directionally challenged we’ve included this interactive map that highlights some of the more useful places to know about. Red pin for the Yorkshire Museum, where the main meeting is happening during the day on Thursday and Friday; blue pins for places we will be meeting on Wednesday evening;  green pins for places we’ll be going on Thursday evening and yellow pins for handy landmarks – you can click on the pins for more details.  Hopefully this potted plan for the conference will help make sure you’ll end up where you want to be.

Wednesday 27th February

In the early evening there will be a committee meeting in the (pretty small) Three-legged Mare on High Petergate, everyone else would be better off in the Guy Fawkes Inn, which is also on High Petergate. If you are standing at the cross-roads in front of the Minster you can see both these pubs but you have to look both ways down High Petergate. The committee will join everyone in the Guy Fawkes once the meeting is over.

Thursday 28th February

During the day we will be at the Yorkshire Museum for the sessions, after which  it’s back at the Guy Fawkes if you fancy pre-dinner drinks, as it’s two minutes from ‘Ask’ on Blake Street where we’re having dinner. After dinner we will head to the large Old White Swan on Goodramgate, after running the gauntlet of smaller pubs on Stonegate (which we probably won’t fit in en masse). Of these Clare recommends The Yorkshire Terrier, Ye Olde Starre Inne, Evil Eye Lounge (yes really) and The House of Trembling Madness.

Friday 1st March

Once again the day will be spent at the Yorkshire Museum, unless you are planning to take the tour to the off-site venue in the afternoon, but more details about that will be made available on the day.

For further information about what’s happening (and to keep up with the talks and discussions) you can check Twitter under the hashtag #NatSCA2013 and follow the NatSCA twitter account @Nat_SCA

We hope you find this useful and we look forward to seeing you in York!

 

N.B. If you want to print the map and are having trouble, here is a link to a printable version.

Natural Science Collections and the Law

The Manchester Museum – 8th February

Museum collections have a variety of legal issues surrounding them and natural science collections are no exception. A variety of laws are in place to protect wildlife and these can have an impact on how collections may be used. To find out how the law may affect you join us for our Natural Science Collections and the Law seminar taking place on 8th February 2013 at the Manchester Museum.

eggs

Timetable for the day:

10.00 Arrival/Coffee/Registration
10.30-11.30 ‘CITES and Museums: Perfect partners?‘  Nichola Burnett, UK CITES Scientific Authority (fauna), Joint Nature Conservation Committee
11.30-12.00 Q & A with Nichola
12.00 Lunch
12.45-1.30 ‘Legislation relating to possession of egg collections in museums‘ Douglas Russell, NHM
1.30-1.45 Q&A with Douglas
1.45 Coffee
2.00-3.00 ‘Licensing requirements for UK protected Wildlife‘ Nigel Shelton, Natural England
3.00-3.30 Q & A with Nigel
4.00 Close

The seminar costs £35 for members or £50 for non-members (so why not use the extra £15 to join?), which includes lunch and refreshments. The deadline for booking is 7th January so fill in the form today.

Hope to see you there!