There is a lot on the go right
now. Between the Advisory Service, Museum Evaluation Program, Strategic Plan
initiatives, MAP funding deliverables, and "other fun", it's never a
dull moment at the ANSM office. If you want to hear about our latest dreams and
schemes, be sure to attend a regional meeting. In the meantime, here are the
highlights of this month's work.
Museum Evaluation Program
This
was a very busy month for the MEP. On October 1st and 8th we had meetings with
the Working Group, which mostly consisted of finalizing Accreditation details
and reviewing questions for 2020. I've been spending a lot of time
updating forms and resources for the coming year, which will hopefully all be
ready by next week's orientation sessions. As documents are approved, they are
being added to our website. If you are scheduled
for evaluation in 2020 and haven't yet registered for an orientation session, click here.
On
October 29th we announced Accreditation, and you can now read all about it on our website as well.
Accreditation ties into your evaluation year, and the first deadline to apply
is December 20th.
Regional Meetings
I hit the road last week for the
Southwest Curator's Group meeting in Digby. It was hands-down the most
entertaining regional meeting I've ever attended. The amount of laughter was
amazing. If you don't participate in these, you should. So much information is
shared - ideas, successes, struggles, frustrations. It's professional
development and therapy rolled into one. Next month there will be meetings in
the Northeast and Cape Breton, so if you are in those regions and haven't yet
connected with your regional group, we can help you connect.
CollectiveAccess Updates
Sandi
has been editing images from site visits this year and there are some fantastic
shots! Thanks to everyone who helped with digitization efforts. The new images
are gradually being added to NovaMuse. Keep an
eye on the recently added section on the homepage. You may even spot an item
you helped capture during hub training
Over the past month, 488 new
records and 2,776 new images were added to the databases. This gives us grand
totals of 307, 074 records and 212, 962 images.
Regionally, here's the breakdown:
Southwest - 136, 757
artifacts, 81, 976 images
Central - 102, 744
artifacts, 61, 304 images
Northeast - 36, 458
artifacts, 52, 729 images
Cape Breton - 31, 115
artifacts, 16, 953 images
For the image of the month, we
bring you a spooktacular postcard. If there is information written on the back
of a postcard, don't forget to scan the back as well. This is a great example
demonstrating that two-dimensional items need to be scanned (or
photographed straight on if in poorer condition). The border at the top of the
postcard is cut off slightly and could be improved if adjusted. Take the extra
time to make sure your 2-dimensional items are positioned well in the scanner.
Most scanners have a preview function that makes this assessment really easy.
We
are working diligently to have the transcription tool test site ready soon. A
few of our Advisory Service sites have volunteered to test out this new
feature. It's a great time to have a closer look at your collection and think
about what material you'd like transcribed. Once ready, you can invite staff
and volunteers to explore your records. Why not give them a head start? In the
meantime, we encourage you to explore two online transcription tools that we
are drawing inspiration from offered by the Nova Scotia Archives and the Royal
BC Museum. Stay tuned for more updates!
New Resources Online
Anita, Ayla and Karin locked themselves in a room and talked through various templates and resources. Some were older ones that have been on our website but needed to be updated, and others were brand new. Here's an overview of what got added/updated, and the links:
Anita, Ayla and Karin locked themselves in a room and talked through various templates and resources. Some were older ones that have been on our website but needed to be updated, and others were brand new. Here's an overview of what got added/updated, and the links:
- New
section on Governance that includes a board profile worksheet,
checklist of material for potential board members, and prospective board member
referral form.
- Collections - updated incoming
and outgoing loan agreement forms and temporary receipt.
- Management -
updated volunteer policy.
We are still working on several other new/updated templates, so stay tuned for more announcements like this. If you have a need for a template, let us know and we'll add it to our to do list.
NS Social Studies Teachers
Conference
Sandi and Ayla attended
the annual provincial conference "Cultural Connections" hosted
by the Social Studies Teachers Association of Nova Scotia on Friday, Oct. 25th
at Saint Mary's University. It was exciting to have the opportunity to meet
300+ educators from across the province and share information about NovaMuse.
We asked teachers what they look for when exploring online educational
resources and came back with a lot of helpful feedback. Thanks to everyone who
dropped by our booth!
SME Updates
Ayla
continues to work with a map expert in efforts to improve records on NovaMuse.
Discussions with a ship portraits expert and military insignia expert are also
on the horizon. More on this as the SME partnerships unfold. Sandi is editing
video footage from her visits to museums with Joleen. New basket related
content coming soon to NovaMuse!
We track all of this SME work and have just started to compile a wish list for future partnership projects. We got a great wishlist of SME work from the teachers we met. If you have items in your collection that you'd like to learn more about, please let us know and we'll add them to our list. Or, if you have local experts who you think would enjoy sharing their knowledge with museums, feel free to connect them with us.
Old Loans
This project has taken a lot longer than we thought it would,
but there is light at the end of the tunnel. Our lawyer is reviewing the final
draft and hopes to have it back to us by tomorrow. Ayla is making fantastic
headway on the lender lists, and has completed 13 so far. Once we get the loan
toolkit back from the lawyer we'll publish it on our website and circulate
customized toolkits that include lender lists for Advisory Service sites that
requested them. If you haven't requested a lender list, let us know. We'll add
you to the list. Yes the toolkit represents some work, but the toolkit will
guide you through every step of the process. As we've compiled the lender lists
we've encountered numerous situations where a lender has passed away within the
past 1-2 years, highlighting the importance of reconciling these old loans
asap.
Artefacts Canada
Last week we circulated a message
about refreshing content on Artefacts Canada (AC). As we've mentioned in the
past, CHIN is working on updating the website, but in the meantime our friends
in New Brunswick have developed a tool to easily contribute through
CollectiveAccess. We contributed to AC from 2006-2011, but stopped when we
switched databases in 2011. Over the past 8 years we've all been doing a lot of
work on collection records, so many of the early contributions to AC were
outdated and missing images before we did our first refresh this Spring. It's
great to be able to refresh these records and mirror what is being shared on
NovaMuse in the 'national inventory' (an early term used to describe AC). If
you haven't yet responded to last week's message seeing permission to do a
biannual refresh of your information, please contact Sandi.
Time-Based Media
Ayla's research project is
focusing on multimedia holdings in museum collections. This is something we've
never investigated before, so thanks to everyone who responded to her survey
about what you have in your collections. She's now writing up her report which
will include a guide on how to address these items (digitization, preservation,
etc.). This ties in nicely to some NovaMuse upgrades to better share audio and
video content, as well as some new preservation tools underway for
CollectiveAccess. Isn't it nice when the stars align?
Advisory Service Survey
It is also that time of year,
when we check in with members about their likes and dislikes about the Advisory
Service. Sandi circulated the annual survey last week, so please remember to
complete it. We want to hear your ideas on improvements, what you like best,
what is of the least interest, etc. Basically, we want your feedback. The
deadline to complete the survey is November 15th.
Museum Moments
Do you have tips you'd like to share
regarding collections management? What about an event or special project you'd
like to highlight? We'd love to hear about and share your success story in a
featured blog post. Check out our latest Museum Moment post to see what it's all about.
