June 2023 Update

 ANSM Staffing

Last month we shared that the the job competition for our new Executive Director had closed. This month we're excited to say that there will be an announcement about that role very soon, and we're on the cusp of interviewing for two other positions at ANSM - Museum Services Coordinator and Communications & Administrative Coordinator. This is a time of major change for ANSM, but the thought of increased capacity and how we can better serve our members is exciting to say the least. 

Because of all the meetings and activities on the go, your best way to contact us right now is by email. We are not in the office every day, so there will likely be a delay in responding to any messages left on the ANSM line.

AGM Recap

In case you missed it, our AGM happened on June 16th. You can read our annual report on our website.

Strategic Plan

Maggie presented our new strategic plan at the AGM. It represents some familiar activities and exciting new opportunities for ANSM, and responds to what we heard last year during the Unlocking Collections gatherings. The plan was written in-house following a two day planning retreat where we worked with Mind's Eye Creative to figure out the next few years of ANSM life. We love how they captured our discussions and think you'll enjoy the visual nature of this plan.

Unlocking Collections

Karin presented our new ReconciliAction Plan at the AGM, which came out of last year's Unlocking Collections gatherings as well. We originally thought this would be a digitization strategy but this is so much more. It includes actions for ANSM and museums, and includes a list of actions taken as well as those to come. This is the first time we have released a document like this - a living and active plan that is updated regularly, and that is open for anyone to see. As we said last year, this is just the beginning. There is much to be done but we are encouraged by the progress and relationships being developed.

One of the calls to action is to ensure museums have access to cultural awareness training. We've partnered on this with a few different people and groups since last fall and are very pleased to announce that we've just set another training date! On September 18th we will be at the Digby Pines Resort, where Theresa Meuse and Roger Lewis will lead a day of learning for museum workers. The agenda will be very similar to the training days we've held elsewhere - Halifax, Membertou and Millbrook.  Stay tuned for an announcement on registration. There will be a registration cost but it will be kept as low as possible and only aim to cover the cost of the facility rental, food, and facilitator fees.

TRACK

This month we had an orientation meeting with museums participating in the 2nd round of piloting. And we are now starting to receive their feedback on the newly redesigned assessment document. Once we hear from everyone we will make some more changes and then roll into round 3 of piloting. For round 3 we are looking for a few more museums to review the assessment document. This round will have a tight turnaround of two weeks. If you are interested in participating, or if you would like more information, email Karin.

Conference 2023

Looking ahead to the Fall, our annual conference is going to be in-person again! We can't wait to head to Baddeck in October to talk all about Museum Care - care of self, team, and community. We would love to hear about your museum's experiences in these areas. If you're interested in presenting, check out the call for proposals.

Registration is now open, and more info can be found on our website.

If you haven't been to an ANSM conference before, one of the things we do is celebrate excellence in our member museums by giving out a couple awards. If you want to nominate a person or museum for their amazing work, check out the criteria and nomination forms on our website.

CollectiveAccess & NovaMuse

As summer students and seasonal staff and volunteers join the team, remember the importance of training people on proper cataloguing, data entry, and other collections management practices. In checking database statistics yesterday, numerous instances of people entering bad data into the databases were discovered. This creates major headaches for the museums and makes all museums look bad since we share NovaMuse. It is so important to talk to new workers about the importance of following standards, of the museum's professional reputation, and its public trust responsibilities. Encourage people to use the Help menu, info button for each field, and to reach out to their supervisors and ANSM for help when they have questions. And don't forget to check on peoples' work. If they are struggling with something and not asking questions, it's so much easier to catch these issues early than at the end of the summer when major messes have been created. Another reason why it's so important for everyone to be using their own database account. You want to be able to track each user's work. If you need any new accounts set up, reach out to Karin and she'll get those set up asap.

The ReconciliAction Plan includes the goal of addressing data entry backlogs. This month our collective work brought the numbers up to 371,000 object records and 343,000 associated media files. Steady progress is being made, which is great to see and demonstrates to communities that we heard and are responding to their concerns expressed last summer. But as above, we need to make sure that this is happening at a high standard. 

Our image lesson of the month has all sorts of great lessons for us. This small pitcher is has Hebrew writing on it and has a specific purpose in Jewish culture. Looking at the record though, it is tagged as being a Jewish object, nor has the museum explained the object's importance through that cultural lens. Shifting to the photography, paper tags should be removed prior to photography, and the object should be sitting in its natural upright position rather than lying down. This would greatly improve our understanding of it. Putting the scale in the lower left corner (close but not touching the object) and keeping that within the frame around the object, and adjusting lighting to remove shadows will make the photo look incredibly professional. Additional detail photos should capture the writing, makers marks, and different sides/views. Remember again to take your time, and reach out for help if you have questions.

Summer Site Visits

Since we are still actively in the hiring process, Karin and Sandi will be tag-teaming on getting site visits started. Most people know that in response to a member survey a few years ago we started doing a mix of virtual and in-person site visits. Yesterday we emailed everyone on the list for a virtual visit this year to book their date/time. We'll be talking about Unlocking Collections and the ReconciliAction Plan, audiovisual materials in the museum, and some upcoming training opportunities. And of course we want to hear all about what's been happening in the museums! For anyone on the list for in-person visits, we'll be in touch soon. 

Educational Partnerships

There is a lot going on right now in the world of partnerships. Karin met with two 'new' schools this month to talk about their heritage internship programs and how ANSM can work with them. We now have an MOU with one school and both will receive internship proposals from ANSM as part of our ongoing recruitment efforts to get museum studies students into Nova Scotia's museums.

Karin's SMU course has wrapped up the seminars and now the students are rolling into some special projects for the remainder of the summer. All of these projects directly respond to Unlocking Collections calls to action. 

Katie is keeping busy with her Fleming College internship, and so far has written some webinar reviews, helped with some database work, developed some advocacy plans, done some Made in NS research, and found and updated some resources relating to EDI and collections management. 

Next week we will be welcoming another student on board for a placement from SMU. Stay tuned for her introduction and to hear about her work.