July 2018 Updates

Hello from Karin
I'm back! Huge thanks to Cathy Blackbourn, Valerie Lenethen, and ANSM's own Anita, Sandi, and Jen for covering off on my various responsibilities while I was home with baby Allie (who isn't such a baby anymore!). Also thanks to everyone for their lovely messages welcoming me back to work. They were a great reminder about why I love my job and why the museum field is so wonderful. It is good to be back, and I look forward to catching up with all of you. It sounds like it's been a busy year with lots of changes.

Museum Evaluation Program
Nothing like diving headfirst into a task, July was very busy with site evaluations and everything that

Evaluators Extraordinaire

goes along with them. On my second day back at work we held orientation for evaluators. What a great group of dedicated professionals, 7 of whom have evaluated with us at least one other year and loved it so much that they wanted to do it again. In teams of three they were deployed across the province where they got to meet staff, board members, volunteers, and summer students at 17 museums. As in other years, the evaluators reported back that they were impressed by the hospitality, knowledge and passion of the people they met, and the amazing work that is being done to share Nova Scotia's history and serve communities. Now that the site evaluations are finished, it's time to do the scoring and reporting for all the sites. Our goal is to have reports out to the museums by early September, after which we will start working on the big overarching report for the Department of Communities, Culture & Heritage.
We are still receiving photos from everyone but stay tuned to our Facebook page for an album of evaluation pics. It will be up shortly.

CollectiveAccess Update
There are now 292,689 artifacts documented with 172, 024 associated images, which means that 1,902 new records and 3,158 new images have been added to CollectiveAccess this month - great work everyone! Congratulations to the Southwest region for adding the most images this month.

A special shout out to the West Hants Historical Museum who reached the 10,000 benchmark for records entered in CollectiveAccess - fantastic work!

Here's what the numbers look like at the regional level:

Southwest -129,953 artifacts, 65,030 images

Central - 99,499 artifacts, 48,808 images

Northeast - 33,430 artifacts, 42,705 images

Cape Breton - 29,807 artifacts, 15,481 images

CollectiveAccess Tip

Enriched Tab in CollectiveAccess - Made in Nova Scotia field

Made in Nova Scotia on NovaMuse.ca

In CollectiveAccess, you will find the 'Made In Nova Scotia' field under the Enriched Tab. This allows you to choose from over 8,000 entities. We encourage you to use this feature to tag the manufacturer or individual (i.e. carver, boatbuilder, weaver, etc.) to your record. This will also appear on NovaMuse. It allows users to search for artifacts that were made in the province, very exciting stuff! 

We add manufacturing information in the back-end and continually strive to enrich the narratives featured on NovaMuse. By completing this simple step in the database, you are helping us share this knowledge with the public and celebrate connections in your collections!

myNovaMuse - Contributor Galleries

Did you know you can share interesting items in your collection on NovaMuse? Why not group together artifacts that tell a story about your community? Is this feature new to you? No problem! Learn how to create your own galleries by watching our YouTube tutorial - click here. 

New galleries to view! To browse new additions, click here.

Did you know that this feature is available to general users as well? All you need to do is create an account. Encourage your visitors to join in on the fun at the end of your tours this summer! It's a great way to encourage the public to explore items in your collection after their departure. Who knows? Maybe they will even share with a friend and spread the news.

Exciting things to come!

SME Pilot Project - this year, our goal is to continue to help Advisory Service sites connect with SMEs in their area. We have partnered with Colchester Historeum and Kings County Museum who have agreed to be the host sites for the project. The staff are excited to work with those in their area to make key connections, learn more about their SMEs' expertise, and enrich their records in the process. Their goal is to link together related items in their collection that tell stories connected to local history. The museums are making connections with SMEs as we speak! We are excited to provide guidance and support throughout this process. The Kings County Museum team plans on examining bottles and silverware with two local experts. Exciting stuff!

Webinar Series this Fall - to discuss collections management best practices, including digitization and use of CollectiveAccess. Advisory Service members have expressed interest in more online content for learning. One of our ongoing goals is to make content more accessible and we think this is a great way to do so. More information to follow, stay tuned!

photo credit Kai

CollectiveAccess updates - we recently had a visit from our friend Seth of Whirl-i-gig (the brilliant people behind CollectiveAccess). It was great to have an in-person meeting! Many exciting plans are in the works as we tackle our current MAP grant deliverables and brainstorm about future ambitions. More on this soon!

In Other News

Photo Kit - available to ANSM members to borrow for a 3 week period (camera not included). Spots still available this summer! Please express interest by email: advisory@ansm.ns.ca

Save the Dates! The AGM will be held at 2pm on September 27th at Kings Theatre, Annapolis Royal. The AGM will be held in conjunction with our annual conference this year held in partnership with the Town of Annapolis Royal and the Heritage Trust of Nova Scotia, and will take place September 26-28 in Annapolis Royal.

June 2018 Updates

I hope everyone is enjoying the long weekend and had a fantastic Canada Day! I have many exciting updates to share from last month.

Advisory Service Update

Digitization at Colchester Historeum

It's that time of year again! The summer months are upon us and many of ANSM's member museums are opening for the season. I will be busy once again providing support for our Advisory Service members. In May, we circulated a survey to our sites asking what they would like to gain from participating in the Advisory Service this year in an effort to customize content. Many asked for further CollectiveAccess training, an overview of ANSM resources and templates, and a tour of the new and improved NovaMuse. Others are looking for more guidance with digitization and database cleanup work. We have taken this feedback into consideration when planning for this summer! We have already seen an increase in digitization activity, good stuff! The team at Colchester Historeum are looking for marks and labels in the photo above to enrich the artifact record in CollectiveAccess as they upload the new photographs - a good best practice to follow.

CollectiveAccess Update 

There are now 290, 787 artifacts documented with 168, 866 associated images, which means that 945 new records and 2,408 new images have been added to CollectiveAccess this month - great work everyone! Congratulations to the Southwest region for adding the most images this month.

Here's what the numbers look like at the regional level:

Southwest -128530 artifacts, 63460 images
Central -  99314 artifacts, 47716 images
Northeast -  33354 artifacts, 42588 images 
Cape Breton -  29589 artifacts, 15102 images


As you prepare for database work this summer, it is important to contact me by email: advisory@ansm.ns.ca to set up accounts for your students and volunteers. It is important that they use their own account so that you can monitor changes. A friendly reminder that the curator level accounts have more features, which should only be accessible to the curator. Please do not share logins.

Looking for a refresher on data entry? Please review the CollectiveAccess manual and YouTube tutorials.

Digitization Tip

Let's do something a little patriotic shall we? Here's a beautiful maple leaf patch. For items like this, you can digitize them with and without the scale, using the non-scaled image as your primary image for NovaMuse, and keeping the scale image in your database for quick reference. You can see how a scale would be very distracting in this shot. In terms of 'fixing' this shot, you'll notice a sort of greyish line that runs through from the top left to bottom right. Play with your lighting and camera settings to make sure that your image is evenly lit and doesn't have shadows in any areas.



myNovaMuse - Contributor Galleries

Check out the Beach Days gallery created by the NovaMuse team! Browse the galleries by clicking here.

Is this feature new to you? No problem! Learn how to create your own galleries by watching our YouTube tutorial - click here. Your usernames and passwords were sent to your emails late last year.







Handy Resources available on ANSM website to assist you this summer:

Collections Seasonal Work Calendar
Managing Your NovaMuse Presence
Working with Subject Matter Experts
Working with Military Museum Collections Tip Sheet
Artefact Photography Tips

Click here to download!

Exciting things to come!

SME Pilot Project - this year, our goal is to continue to help Advisory Service sites connect with SMEs in their area. We have partnered with Colchester Historeum and Kings County Museum who have agreed to be the host sites for the project. The staff are excited to work with those in their area to make key connections, learn more about their SMEs' expertise, and enrich their records in the process. Their goal is to link together related items in their collection that tell stories connected to local history. The museums are now looking for SMEs and once these connections are made, they will narrow down a list of artifacts related to their SMEs expertise. The museums will share these records in a series of myNovaMuse galleries on NovaMuse later this year! We will also release a guide to creating stories using online collections later on. Very exciting stuff!

For those of you that would like to start making these connections in your community, please check out our 'Working with Subject Matter Experts' handout (link listed above).

Webinar Series this Fall - to discuss collections management best practices, including digitization and use of CollectiveAccess. Advisory Service members have expressed interest in more online content for learning. One of our ongoing goals is to make content more accessible and we think this is a great way to do so. More information to follow, stay tuned!

CollectiveAccess updates - we are working with Whirl-i-gig to develop an online assistance tool within CollectiveAccess, as well as, data violation reports. This will improve online support and data entry controls in CollectiveAccess. More on this soon!

Membership Update

June 1st marked the start of a new membership year (2018/19)! Check your mailboxes to find your membership renewal package; it contains ANSM updates, information on how to renew either online or by cheque, award information, and more. Thanks for everyone who has sent in their renewal forms so far! Please note that site visits this year will not be made without prior receipt of your 2018/19 Advisory Fees.

Museum Evaluation Program 2018 Update

Site visits by evaluation teams are on the horizon for museums scheduled in 2018. Site evaluations take place July 9 – and will be happening all over the province. Prior to the sites' visits the Evaluators gather for a day’s training and orientation on July 4th. This year’s orientation will include a new “Guide for Evaluation” which will also be available as a resource for the sites. Karin Kierstead returns from maternity leave on July 3rd and rejoins the small but mighty crew at the ANSM office. Our Thanks to Cathy Blackbourn for serving as lead contact and co-ordinator for the Evaluation Program during Karin’s leave.

Click here to learn more about the program!

In Other News

Photo Kit - available to ANSM members to borrow for a 3 week period (camera not included). The summer is the perfect opportunity to work through photographing items in your collection, spots still remaining! Please express interest in borrowing it by email: advisory@ansm.ns.ca

Save the Dates! 2018 AGM & Conference - September 26-28

Notice is hereby given that the Annual General Meeting of the Association of Nova Scotia Museums will be held at 2pm on September 27th at Kings Theatre, Annapolis Royal.

The AGM will be held in conjunction with our annual conference, this year held in partnership with the Town of Annapolis Royal and the Heritage Trust of Nova Scotia, and will take place September 26-28 in Annapolis Royal.