February 2022 Update

Exciting News!
We just found out that our MAP grant application was successful! We are very excited to embark on some new territory as we develop a digitization strategy for cultural collections. More details soon!

Museum Evaluation Program
Does anyone else feel that you need to start using a word other than busy? This was another month full of MEP renewal activity. Lots of meetings, lots of editing draft documents, lots of reading and research. This week we are preparing an announcement, so keep an eye on your inboxes!

Accreditation applications were reviewed and letters sent to each museum. If your museum submitted an application and you didn't receive that letter, or you have questions, please reach out to Karin. A formal announcement will be made in May as part of our International Museums Day celebrations. 

Learning Opportunities
Registration will be opening soon for our Spring Museum Studies Program courses - Interpretation II: Exhibitions will be taking place on Fridays from April 1 to May 6 (no classes on Good Friday). The course will be presented by Marc Bélanger. Marketing & Revenue Generation, which will be taught by Carrie Lunde, will take place on Fridays from May 13 to June 10. Both will take place virtually via Zoom. Watch the Beacon and our Facebook page for details, and remember that these courses fill up quickly so don't miss out!

CollectiveAccess Updates
We've reached the end of February and while we've all battled near weekly snowstorms and many hours with a shovel or snowblower in our hands work has continued to be done in the database. It's great to see the increase in numbers each month! CollectiveAccess now has a total of 347,706 artifact records (an increase of 1397) and 315,973 images (an increase of 2733). That is A LOT of work being put in by our members during these blustery (and yet sometimes sunny and warm) winter months.

As always let's break the numbers down by region to get a closer look: 

Southwest: 147,663 artifacts & 105,617 images

Central: 107,553 artifacts & 103,931 images

Northeast: 59,472 artifacts & 80,862 images

Cape Breton: 33,017 artifacts & 25,563 images

Now let's have a look at five tips and tricks for digitizing archival materials for our 

Artifact Lesson of the Month:  

1. Create a master and working copy. When digitizing archival materials think about its future use - likely at some point your site will be modifying or working with said digital image (say for an exhibit or a publication). It's good practice to create two files - a master copy, preferably saved in tiff format if possible, and stored safely with other digital archives. Your working copy, which can be saved as a JPEG, will be smaller and more convenient to modify, send by email or share on social media platforms.

2. Why TIFF? The preferred format for saving digital masters, as was previously mentioned above, is TIFF. This is because it keeps the maximum amount of digital data that your scanner captures. As these files are often times VERY large, file storage can sometimes be an issue. If this seems to be the case there are options! You can still compress the file and reduce the file size by saving it as an LZW file which cuts the original file size without losing any digital data. If this isn't an option you can always save the photo as a JPEG which also cuts the file size but unfortunately does lose some of its digital data. Remember that even if you have to save your master copy as a JPEG to create two files - one that is the master and remains untouched and one that can be edited or modified.

3. Grayscale or Color? A good tip for scanning black and white photographs is to scan them in grayscale while scanning colored archival materials in color. There are a couple of cases in which judgement should be exercised in whether to use grayscale or color. Sepia photographs for example can be scanned using grayscale however, scanning in color helps represent the original state of the photograph (which is typically a black and white photograph with tints of brown). Another judgement call one might have to make when digitizing is black and white photographs that have some damage (most commonly brown or yellow spots or stains). While you can scan in grayscale, scanning in color helps make the damage easier to both recognize and correct if desired.

4. Too large or too fragile? No problem. For materials that are too large or too fragile to scan it is acceptable to use a digital camera or even a smart phone to digitize the artifact.

5. General recommendations for file formats: 

    

Educational Partnerships                                                                                                           The Fleming students have finished the first part of their assignment and are now researching up a storm, digging up new info on their chosen artifact. Every year that we partner on this work yields different results, with some records seeing minimal changes and others being incredibly stronger by the end of the process. It will be so interesting, as it always is, to see what discoveries are made this year.

Plans are also moving forward with our new SMU partnership. An MOU is in place, a course outline is being developed, and all the university logistics of ANSM becoming an instructor are underway. We are excited about working closer with the academic community and collaboratively support our member museums in nifty new ways. 

The Curious Case of the Inverted Object Term

Inverted vs Natural Order

There is no doubt that Robert G. Chenhall left a lasting legacy for museums throughout North America when in 1978 he created “Nomenclature for Museum Cataloging: A System for Classifying Man-Made Objects”. As museum workers, volunteers, or even summer students we have probably either used this or an iteration of it at some point to catalogue an artifact. According to nomenclature.info: “Nomenclature is the most extensively used museum classification and controlled vocabulary for historical and ethnological collections in North America."

 One aspect of nomenclature that we are all familiar with is how object terms are listed in the inverted order (Blade, Skate for example). Did you know that one of the primary reasons for inverted order was to help group similar objects in the index of printed books like Nomenclature 3.0 and 4.0? A move to an online (and free) format has made nomenclature much more accessible to museums and still very easily searchable. With a number of reasons listed on the nomenclature.info website however, there was an announcement made in September 2020 that implied they wanted us to switch from the inverted order to the natural order (Skate, Blade for example). With this announcement came panic and a moment of grief for A LOT of museum folk. For me it left me with thoughts of “how am I going to find the time to change over 5000 records?” While this post seems to have taken a turn from “wow, cool stuff!” to “doom and gloom” there has been another announcement made from CHIN (Canadian Heritage Information Network) backed up by a phone call with Karin stating that using the inverted object term is best and that there is no need to switch object terms in our databases to the natural order. Major sigh of relief. Major.

Who was Robert G. Chenhall?

            Now that we've got the important news portion out of the way. Let's take a look at this interesting Chenhall individual. Robert Gene Chenhall was born on January 24, 1923 and died on November 16, 2003 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Born to Lillian and Raymond Chenhall in Iowa, he had a younger sister, Lila, who was four years younger. Robert (or Bob as he was known) lived an interesting and full life, including serving in WW2 in the US Army Medical Corps. In a 1940 census (check out our NovaMuseEd Conducting a Census Activity) it records him as residing in San Diego, California, where he was completing a Bachelor of Arts degree at San Diego State University. It wasn’t long after that he relocated to Los Angeles where he began working first as a Certified Public Accountant with Price Waterhouse & Co before moving on to other corporate organizations where he would hold positions as corporate controller and chief financial officer.

            His obituary states that Chenhall had become “bored with accounting” so he began studying at the Arizona State University where he obtained both a Masters and Ph.D in Archaeology. Chenhall was among one of the first to use computers to catalogue archaeological collections eventually expanding that work into all museum collections. In the 1970s Chenhill was part of the Anthropology Department at the University of Arkansas where he did research for the University Museum and performed field research with the Arkansas Archaeological Survey. After several years Chenhall moved to Rochester, NY where he would play a pivotal role in the development of a cataloguing system for a new museum and then to Buffalo, NY where he would become the Director of the Natural History Museum. From 1980 until his retirement Chenhall would reside in Alburquerque, New Mexico where he worked as the Director of the New Mexico Natural History Museum. Throughout his working career Chenhall travelled internationally helping museums computerize their collections and continued on in post-retirement acting as a consultant for museums in New Mexico.

Concluding Comment

       With that comes the end of this post. Remember INVERTED WORDING IS BEST! Keep up with the great work that you’ve been doing (seriously take a look at those numbers in our January 2022 Update) and on that joyous note: happy cataloguing.

January 2022 Update

Museum Evaluation Program
January included a lot of meetings and work on program revisions. The further we go down this road, the more we are convinced that we are on the right track. We are incredibly encouraged by our conversations with the ANSM board, MEP Working Group, and Culture & Heritage Division staff. We still have a couple more meetings to go but are looking forward to making an announcement in the near future. 

The Accreditation Panel meetings tomorrow to review applications. It has been a real pleasure to read each application and learn more about how the museums of Nova Scotia are serving their communities, along with their future aspirations. 

Collective Access Updates
Here we are in the midst of the cold winter season and yet with a great effort from our members during the off season months we still continue to see an increase in the number of records that are being added to the database. In total we now have 346,309 artifact records (an increase of 1162) and 312,240 images (an increase of 1801). 

Let's break these numbers down into the four regions: 

Northeast: 58,418 artifacts, 76,679 images

Southwest: 147,559 artifacts, 105,494 images

Cape Breton: 33,017 artifacts, 25,563 images

Central: 107,315 artifacts, 102,504 images

Keep up that great work everyone! 

We wrapped up our 2021 MAP grant project this week, which means our CollectiveAccess users will notice a new Condition & Treatment Report feature in the database. The tutorial will walk you through how it works, but if there are any questions feel free to reach out. And speaking of tutorials, our users have been asking for more tools that they can use to train their new staff and volunteers, so here are two options. We developed two simple training modules that will help new users test their CollectiveAccess skills and knowledge. Here are the links to module 1 and module 2. As always, we want to thank the Department of Canadian Heritage for funding this work through the Museum Assistance Program. 

Let's dive back into collections now shall we? This lovely pincushion dates to sometime in the 19th century, and is our artifact lesson of the month. A fascinating artifact, the photograph doesn't allow viewers to really appreciate it's true beauty and intricacy. There are a few things that we can look at that would have taken this photograph from being "blah" to "wow". Remember we want to have a contrasting background that is FREE from wrinkles or creases - we have a little bit of that going on here. 

We can see that the photographer tried to have a contrasting background but one of the main issues here is the presence of dark shadows along the bottom of the pillow. Did you know that indirect natural lighting is best for object photography? While that's not always possible for sites there are other lighting options that photographers can utilize. The basic lighting setup for most object photography will be a main light (known as a key light) and a secondary light (known as a fill light) that is used to reduce shadows. It will take some adjusting to get a properly lit object and one without shadows but as in last month's blog post we've discussed the benefits of taking the time to get the perfect photo. 

Another one of the lessons that we can learn from this photograph is the angle that the photograph was taken. One of the many handy tips offered in ANSM's Artefact Photography Tips reminds us that artifacts should be primarily photographed in their natural position (i.e. how it was used). 3D objects should also be photographed not on a straight line but rather at a 45º (camera slightly higher and looking down on the object).

The final thing that could have taken this from from blah to absolutely wow would be the cropping that was done in the post editing phase. The editing that happens after a photograph is taken can be just as important as the initial stages. Most operating systems have their own editing software that allows you to do basic editing such as cropping, brightening or straightening an image but there are other programs that offer much more advanced options like Photoshop (which does come with a price tag but a much reduced one through tech soup). There is also Photopea which is an online and free program that offers more advanced editing options similar to Photoshop. When you're cropping a photo you want to have equal spacing on all sides of the photograph. In this instance a bit more space could have been given around the object which would have allowed the scale to be fully in the photograph. It is also cropped dangerously close to cutting out a part of the artifact itself. 

NovaMuseEd Updates

NovaMuseEd saw the publishing of three new coloring pages that were created by our summer intern Sarah Cavaliere. The three colouring pages (Flower Mat, Bluenose Schooner Hooked Rug, and House Hooked Mat) feature artifacts from the Cape Sable Historical Society and the Antigonish Heritage Museum. Over the course of the month NovaMuseEd saw 143 resource downloads. While there was a wide variety of resources downloaded over the course of the month the most popular was one of our newest publications Design a Cap Badge with 5 downloads, closely followed with four downloads each: Telegrams and Postcards and Oral History Project. Did you know that NovaMuseEd has 128 resources that can be used in the classroom?

Educational Partnerships

Our annual Fleming College assignment has launched and students are now merrily reviewing database records. Student biographies have been sent to each participating museum so everyone can 'meet' the students working in their database. Even though the project has just started, one student has already been able to correct a misidentified artifact. We look forward to hearing about other discoveries made during the research phase of the work.

Maggie and Karin also met with two professors from Saint Mary's University this month to discuss a new educational partnership. A draft MOU and course outline have been developed that would provide university students with a bit of museum education and practical experience. We will share more as we figure out all the details, but we're hoping to launch this in the Spring.

Bye January!

Caption: Who else felt this way?

Caption: My work from home friend.

Congratulations. We survived January! 

I didn’t intend to do two blog posts from the desk of the executive director this month but surviving the last 31 days seems like it needs celebrating (read to the end… there is even a prize!).

Nearly everyone I talked to this month was feeling the same way. We all had a lot going on making it hard to balance life and work. For me it was balancing the days I got the call from daycare to come pick-up the toddler because she is sick (again) and the days I was trying to work from home with her underfoot. But look… despite everything we made it! AND although I can only speak from the point of view of the ANSM office, but I trust it’s the same everywhere, we’ve done some amazing work this month.

Back to Basics

It won’t come as a surprise that a lot of the focus at ANSM recently has been on the renewal of the Museum Evaluation Program (more of that to come in the next few weeks). This has been a great opportunity to return to museum fundamentals. Back to basics is always weirdly inspiring. There is elegance in collections records. There is hope in interpretive planning. There is security in good governance practices. And in these trying times, there is a reminder to focus on what’s important in emergency preparedness planning.

Caption: What do you save first in an emergency?

If there is an emergency, what does your emergency preparedness plan tell you to save first? Not the new exhibit. Not the computer with all the work files. Not even the most important artifact in the collection. It is the people. We need to help each other and take care of each other first and foremost.

Emergency preparedness is both about responding when things go wrong, but also taking preventative steps. We might be an association for museums, but we know it is museum people we are supporting. People are telling us they are burning out and we hear you. What steps can we all take to help museum people?

How can we help?

ANSM is trying to put this question at the front of our work for you. Our recent survey on virtual vs in-person training was a great opportunity for us to hear how we can meet your training needs but do it in a way that also meets your personal needs. During revisions to the Museum Evaluation Program, we are responding to the concern about how much work the program is (in addition to being a huge value to museums) on an already long list of things to do. We are gathering and planning resources to help you as we hear you say you are both excited but unsure of how to proceed as museums change the ways they’ve always done things in order to be more reflective and responsive to their communities.

Trying something new in February - Your Homework

Let’s make February a month where we support each other. Let's also make it a month when we grant ourselves the permission to support ourselves. With that in mind, I would like to make the following three recommendations as “homework”:

1.     Read a blog, listen to a podcast, or watch a webinar that inspires you. I have recently been reading the newsletter by Mike Murawski. In his recent newsletter he encourages us to all “breath together” as we come through this time of change. We’ve also recently added his book “Museums as Agents of Change” to the ANSM Reference Library for you to borrow and hope to get a book review up soon. Let us know what blog, podcast, or webinar inspired you so we can share it with others.

2.     Talk to your “museum friends.” The pandemic has made this hard as we no longer see each other in person as much as we used to. Even the informal chats before and after meetings are gone if we are meeting virtually. Make a time this month for an in-person or virtual “coffee chat” so you can geek out about what’s inspiring you and share the burden for what is challenging you. It is a bit last minute, but the Museum Association of Saskatchewan is hosting a community chat on February 2 about museum worker burnout. ANSM had been hosting similar community chats with the Village Well.  These were paused with all of the changes at ANSM this fall but let us know if these would be helpful to you if we brought them back in some format.

And here is the prize I promised at the start…

3.     Join us for a free virtual yoga session on Tuesday, February 15^th at 12 pm. ANSM will be providing the yoga instructor and virtual space. You provide the hour of your time. Let’s use this as an hour to come together and breath together. Let’s also use this an hour for ourselves to focus on what is important and reward yourself for doing your best. Yoga isn’t a solution to everything going on, but it’s a small step. It is also one that we can all take together in February until we can gather, hopefully with cake.

Click her to register for the yoga session. Yoga will be led by Jenn King from On the Mat Yoga Studio.

(Registration Form can also be found here: https://forms.gle/Z1nbXteYz6uaq5xC6)