December 2018 Update

And just like that, the year is over. And was it ever a busy one. 1 national discussion group, 2 book reviews, 3 workshops, 4 orientation sessions, 5 webinars & practice exercises, 5 new/updated internal procedural documents, 7 SME YouTube videos, 8 new/updated online resources, 9 new/updated YouTube tutorials, 16 blog posts, 17 workshop homework assignments reviewed, 18 museum evaluations, 290 records reviewed by Fleming students, 1,553 records migrated into CollectiveAccess, 7,766 new database records, 23,882 new database images, and we won't bother counting all the meetings...there were many.

Museum Evaluation Program
I've had a couple questions from people about the overarching evaluation report. It was submitted to CCH before the holidays, and once we receive approval, we will post it on our website for all to see. We will let everyone know when it goes online.
For the 2019 evaluations, Q&A continues, and next week we will be launching the evaluator application process. We have a slightly tweaked job description and application form, and will announce via the Beacon and Facebook. For now, if you know of any museum professionals who might be interested in volunteering their time to this program, you can direct them to our website or suggest they give us a call. We'd be more than happy to discuss.

Strategic Planning
I mentioned in the November update that our board was working through a strategic planning process. The draft plan is being tweaked, and we are incorporating it into our 2019 work plans. We feel good about it, and hope that you will too. We'll announce when it is finalized and on our website.

CollectiveAccess Update
Advisory Service museums have also been very busy. We are happy to report that staff and volunteers at these institutions, working with ANSM, Fleming, and SME partners, made improvements to 11% of the collections this year (32,184 records, including 14,267 new images). This is a very big accomplishment, fantastic work everyone! And as mentioned above, over 7000 new entries and 23,000 new images were added in 2018. Wow!

There are now 297,475 artifacts documented with 177,838 associated images, which means that 1,713 new records and 356 new images have been added to CollectiveAccess this month. We're getting very close to the 300k mark. That will definitely be a cake-worthy celebration.

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

Southwest -133,312 artifacts, 67,523 images

Central - 100,410 artifacts, 50,821 images
Northeast - 33,605 artifacts, 43,568 images
Cape Breton - 30,148 artifacts, 15,926 images

SME Partnership
In 2018, we partnered with the Colchester Historeum, Kings County Museum, and the Nova Scotia Sport Hall of Fame. With their help, we launched a SME pilot project. Great connections were made with local SMEs who shared their knowledge and expertise. Connections within records surfaced and over 20+ stories are now featured in the new galleries on NovaMuse. To learn more about this partnership, we invite you to read the project recap. A Stories Guide will be released soon to help you make these kind of connections in your own records on NovaMuse. Stay tuned!

museums participating in the 2019 Fleming partnership

Fleming Partnership
The next NovaMuse project will be launching mid-January. 10 museums will be participating and 300 records will be reviewed and improved. The students, teacher, and of course the team here at ANSM, are all excited about what this year's work will bring. Every year the students uncover something new that really adds to a museum's knowledge of their collections. With 300 artifacts in play, something cool is sure to come up.




As we look ahead to 2019, we see some big plans and more busy times. But we are feeling excited and energized for what comes next.

Happy New Year!