January 2011 Update

The year has just begun but we've definitely hit the ground running.

Renewal Contracts

Passage renewal contracts have been sent out and should be in your mailbox any day.  Please return these with your renewal cheque as soon as possible as we need a valid contract before we can migrate your database to the new system.  We truly appreciate all of the hard work you have put into this over the years, and look forward to another year of partnership. 

ANSM Online

If you’re looking for some professional development tips and resources, or wondering what museums in Nova Scotia are up to, we’d love to have you join our Facebook fan page.  If you don’t have a Facebook account you can still access the page by clicking on the Facebook button to your right.

Also remember to check out our website.  The resources section is being added to monthly.  New resources include a Museums Guide to Internet Marketing and Incident Report for Injury or Illness.

QR Code Project

This project was originally supposed to finish on January 21^st, but CHIN has graciously granted us a project extension until mid-March.  So Josh is continuing to work on project branding, getting all the instructional posters printed up, and finalizing content with sites.  This week will mark the official launch of the QR Codes at the NS Museum of Natural History in Halifax, which we are all very excited about.  Alexandra is dividing her time between the How-To Guide for QR Codes and database migration work (more on that later).  There will be a session on QR Codes at our Spring conference in Tatamagouche in April, and we can’t wait to share the process with you.

Database Renewal Project

As you’ve all heard, migration is imminent.  You’ve also heard that in order to do the migration we need to get all your artefact photos.  If I don’t receive these files by Feb.18^th, you will have to reattach your images in the new system.  We hate to do this, but we just can’t wait any longer or we won’t meet our funding deliverables.  Alexandra has been phoning around to make sure this is done, so if you haven’t yet spoken with her please call the office right away.

Alexandra has also started working on the new database user manual, and we are hoping to have some how-to videos posted on our YouTube channel by mid-March to supplement the manual.

Pinpointing the location of an archival photograph

I know this probably seems like a big waiting game, but we’re working very hard to get this right.  We’ll give you a call the minute we’re ready to migrate your museum’s data.

Artefacts Canada Tally

I haven’t reported on this since November, so I thought I’d remind everyone just how many records we have that have been released to the general public through Artefacts Canada.  Once again the central region was the only region to upload records, adding another 844 to the tally.  This gives us a grand total of 158,165 collection records on Artefacts Canada. 

Here are the new regional stats:

Southwest: 69,923

Central: 41,273

Northeast: 25,731

Cape Breton: 21,238

Blog Poll

There is a new blog poll posted that asks what feature you are most excited about in the new database system.  It may be a little less serious than some previous polls, but we’re just as interested in hearing from you.