May 2022 Update

ANSM Updates

In case you missed it, May was a very exciting month here at ANSM. We welcomed not one, not two, but three new people! Brittany Houghton joined us as Member Services Coordinator, and Emma Bronsema and Madeline Hoyle joined us for summer internships. It is lovely to have some fresh faces and ideas in the office, and all three are very excited to get out to museums this summer. 

One of the first places you'll see these fresh faces is at our AGM, coming up on June 10th at 10am on Zoom. The link will be circulated this week so keep an eye on your inbox. 

TRACK Updates

Museums are slowly but surely registering for the new TRACK program, our replacement to the Museum Evaluation Program. For any CMAP recipients, remember that this is a new requirement to access that funding. The Nova Scotia Museum is also asking their sites to register. This means that in the very near future we will be reaching out to any of these museums that have not yet registered.

Feedback on the draft assessment document is now coming in. Madeline is compiling the notes as they arrive, and once we hear back from everyone we'll be meeting again with the working to finalize the document for piloting. We should again extend a big thank you to the museums that are testing the assessment tool. Everyone we approached said yes, and we recognize how significant that is. 

If you or anyone at your museum missed out on the TRACK announcement or info session, our website has lots of info for you. Click here to register for the program.

Site Visits

Brittany, our new Member Service Advisor, is undergoing the process of planning the in person site visits this summer. If you receive an email asking to confirm a date, please respond promptly. You all know what a juggling act this is, so the sooner we can settle the dates/times the better. Her goal is to visit half of the Advisory Service museums in person and meet with the other half virtually. This approach allows for better support to all sites over the course of the summer season. Those who received virtual visits last year and those who have had a change of staff at the curator level will be top priority for in-person visits this year.

There will be no Hub Training sessions this year, rather we are working on planning Community Gatherings, where we are inviting members of the founding communities of Nova Scotia: Mi'kmaq, Acadian, Gaels and African Nova Scotians to join surrounding museums at a number of different sites throughout the province. We encourage you to join us for these sessions! We're still working on ironing out all the details but more information to follow.

Maggie and Karin will also be out on the road some this summer for MAP strategizing, TRACK piloting, and Accreditation plaque deliveries. Lots of planning happening right now, so stay tuned!

CollectiveAccess Updates

We can always tell when summer staff arrive because database numbers skyrocket. This is exciting, but it unfortunately also means we need to remind museums to provide their new staff with appropriate training. Giving someone a login to the database doesn't mean they know how to use it or will do good work. So please, save yourselves the headaches later on and orient your staff, check their work regularly, and remind them that they can reach out to you and to us with questions any time. We are here to help! And it's so, so, so much easier to take the time to train now than to clean up messes later. As much as we hate to say it, we are already seeing some messes going into databases. This reflects poorly on the museum and on all contributors to NovaMuse.

To happier thoughts, 9,729 new records and 731 new images went into the databases this month, giving us grand totals of 350,722 records and 319,767 associated media files. It is so wonderful to see that gap closing. When we first started using CollectiveAccess 10 years ago, only 39% of records had images attached. Now we're sitting at 91%. Such amazing improvements both in terms of collections management practices and in public trust and transparency. Let's break down these numbers by the regions so we can see how each is doing:

Southwest: 148,013 records and 106,072 images Central: 108,509 records and 106,429 images Northeast: 61,148 records and 81,598 images Cape Breton: 33,052 records and 106,429 images

For your artifact image lesson of the month, we wanted to pull out an old favourite. This is just a beautiful photograph. To quote Mary Poppins, practically perfect in every way. The teapot is lovely to begin with, but has been centred and framed in the image, a pale background used to provide excellent contrast with the dark blue and gold, and the scale perfectly tucked in the lower left corner. The shot is angled just enough to give the viewer a sense of depth and shape without feeling unnatural. Additional photos include shots of just the pot, just the plate, just the lid, and close up details of decoration. This level of artifact photography is aspiration. And achievable. So remember to take your time, train your new staff and volunteers, and encourage them to seek advice and assistance when needed.

Educational Partnerships

In addition to our summer interns, this month Karin started teaching a course at SMU. All of the students are big fans of and eager to learn more about museums. Once the spring seminars wrap up the students will be doing a summer practicum which will have them engaged in our MAP project and community gatherings. We're excited and curious to see where this partnership goes. We see so many opportunities.

Hello Summer Interns!

Hello! My name is Emma and I am one of the new interns this spring/summer here at ANSM. I am a graduate student at the University of Western Ontario and am completing a Master of Arts in Public History. I have a passion for museums and historic sites, how they work and the collections they acquire and have acquired. So, as you can imagine, I am ecstatic to be working at ANSM to experience and learn about how museums operate from different perspectives. In addition, I am looking forward to working on projects that make a difference and to better my knowledge on the beautiful province of Nova Scotia.

Before getting into Public History and the museum field, I completed my undergrad at Carleton University, where I obtained a Bachelor of Global and International Studies with a specialization in Global and Transnational history and a minor in German. 

Outside of school and work, I love travelling, food, music, and learning about different languages and cultures.

When this internship comes to an end, I am hoping to continue with museum work in some capacity - whether it be in collections or continuing to work for a museum association or council. Regardless, I would love to stay in the museum and historic site field and am grateful for the opportunity to be a part of such an amazing organization.

Hello Everyone! My name is Madeline and I will be joining ANSM for the next 14 weeks as an intern from the Museum Management and Curatorship graduate certificate program at Fleming College. There are lots of exciting projects in the works right now and I cannot wait to get started! 

Originally from Ontario, I graduated from Dalhousie University last year with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and I have been eager to get back to the east coast ever since. I am excited to dive deeper into the rich history of Nova Scotia during my internship. With a lifelong passion for history and a love of visiting museums, I have always known that museum work was right for me. 

Having spent the past four summers working as a historical interpreter at Lang Pioneer Village Museum in Keene, Ontario, my love of museum work has only continued to grow. I had a great time working as a summer student at Lang and was given the opportunity to experience many different aspects of small museum operations during my time there. 

I am looking forward to getting involved in all of ANSM’s amazing work and exploring its member museums. I know I am going to learn so much from everyone. I am excited for a summer filled with incredible learning experiences and maybe even some fun adventures along the way!

Introducing Ms. Brittany Houghton

Hello everyone, my name is Brittany Houghton and I’m happy to announce that I’m the new Member Service Coordinator with ANSM! Born and raised in Halifax, NS, I can never stray too far from the province - the salty air always calls me back!  Since graduating from the Cultural Heritage Conservation and Management Graduate program at Sir Sandford Fleming College, Peterborough, Ontario in 2020, I’ve worked as a private practicing cultural heritage conservator. As a conservator I’ve had the opportunity to travel around the province working with different museums and institutions such as the O’Dell House Museum in Annapolis Royal, Saint Ninian’s Cathedral in Antigonish and The Halifax Citadel - Parks Canada. I’ve enjoyed the connections I’ve made with different community members. 

My passion for cultural heritage began at a young age. In 2004, I participated in a public archaeological dig at the National Historic Site of Fort Beausejour. Mud-caked and sunburnt, I was hooked! I began my career as an historical archaeologist, graduating from Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, Nova Scotia in 2014 with an Honours degree in Anthropology (concentration Archaeology). With time my interests shifted from uncovering our cultural heritage to preserving it. 

I’m an active member of the Canadian Association for Conservation of Cultural Property and I’ve served on the board of the Nova Scotia Archaeology Society as the Student Liaison and then President. I’m very excited to embark on this new journey with ANSM! I look forward to learning from you and supporting you in this new role.

April 2022 Update

TRACK Updates

Thanks to everyone who joined us for the TRACK info session and for all of the encouragement and feedback we've been receiving since the program's announcement. It is all so helpful. We've been adding updates to our lovely new website, so if anyone needs to play catch up, visit our website for info. If you haven't yet registered for TRACK, remember that this is a new requirement of CMAP funding and will give you access to a wide variety of free and heavily subsidized training and support. Now is the time to do it. 

Our first TRACK Speaker Series session took place last week and was a very inspiring way to start the series. Mike Murawski discussed the work we need to do as museum professionals to tap into the energies within all of us to make change happen and proactively shape a new future. In case you missed it, we've added it to our YouTube channel.

The next step for this new program is to finalize the assessment document. This week it is being circulated to a variety of SMEs (our favourite way to say subject matter experts), and then we'll start planning for the summer pilot process.

Learning Opportunities 

The next course in our Museum Studies Program is right around the corner. Registration for Marketing & Revenue Generation is open. Presented by Carrie Lunde, this course will help you develop effective marketing and communication plans, and review some basic fundraising methods that you can put into practice in your museum. This course will take place Fridays from May 13 to June 10 from 2-4pm. There are only five spaces left, and since the course is being offered online it is cheaper than the usual two-day, in-person course that we offer. Don't miss out!

MAP grant & summer news

We are so excited about this year's MAP-funded project to develop a digitization strategy for cultural collections. Last week the Advisory Service Working Group (formerly known as IMAC) met and will be meeting again in early June to prepare for summer consultations. In order to start preparing for this work, we encourage you to think about your collections and stories that relate to Acadian, African Nova Scotian, Gaelic and Mi'kmaq history. Our new, soon-to-be-announced Member Services Coordinator is very excited to be leading this project and will be in touch with more info in the coming weeks.

Educational Partnerships

Speaking of new staff members, our internship program continues to thrive and we will be welcoming two interns next week - one from Fleming College and one from the University of Western Ontario. They will be working on a wide variety of tasks, including TRACK, MAP's digitization strategy, data cleaning and NovaMuseEd, and much more. 

Our annual Fleming College assignment wrapped up recently, and reports have been sent to the participating museums. This year students were partnered with eight museums and they did a phenomenal job of reviewing and updating records, as well as digging up new info on an artifact of their choosing. 210 collection records were improved as a result. I spoke with the students and Fleming instructors about the high quality of this year's work and expressed our appreciation for this long-standing partnership. It is still one of my favourite projects of the year. And the good news is that Fleming agrees. This is so mutually beneficial that we all want it to continue for years to come. So keep up the data entry and digitization work and let's see what we can have ready for next year's students!

The other fun partnership news is that next week I begin teaching a course on museum fundamentals and decolonizing collections at Saint Mary's University. We had a meeting about this yesterday and were musing on how this all came to be, and that when SMU first reached out to see about partnership opportunities (after hearing about the aforementioned Fleming partnership during a webinar) none of us thought the end result would be a 4th year university course taught by ANSM. In both of these cases, we went into the conversations with open minds and a desire to better serve our member museums, and it's so exciting to see how that goal are being accomplished in very different ways. 

CollectiveAccess Updates

Little by little we have been seeing new artifact records and images being added to the database each month. While the past few months have been slow, some progress is better than no progress at all! In total the database has 340,993 artifact records and 319,036 images! 

Let's break down the numbers and look at how each of our regions performed this past month: 

Southwest: 139,771 artifacts & 105,963 images

Central: 108,424 artifacts & 106,125 images

Northeast: 59,747 artifacts & 81,319 images

Cape Breton: 33,051 artifacts & 25,629 images

Artifact Lesson of the Month 

As we head into a brand new season we start thinking about that backlog of recent (and sometimes not so recent) acquisitions that have been waiting to start their new life as part of the museum's permanent collection. After cataloging and assigning an accession number to an artifact it's time to label; an important part of proper collections management practices. 

Here are some general rules when it comes to labelling artifacts:

1. Ensure that the label is REVERSIBLE! Use conservation-approved materials ONLY!

4. Practice makes perfect! Practice each labelling method until you are confident enough to apply the label. 

3. Label the strongest or most stable material of the artifact. If the materials are fragile or you aren't sure what method you should be using, use a paper label. 

4. To avoid handling the artifact unnecessarily find an accessible and consistent location to put the accession number (i.e. the bottom right hand corner, on the inside hem of the left jacket sleeve, etc.). While you should try to prevent the number from being visible, protect it from areas of friction or rubbing to avoid the number from wearing off.

5. When you're labelling an artifact ensure that the accession number is readable. One tip on how to do this is to break up the number into components (i.e. writing an 8 as two circles). To help with visibility labels can be put on using contrasting colors to the artifact. 

6. Accession labels should be attached or applied to all detachable components of an artifact to avoid pieces from being lost (i.e a teapot and its lid).

Now let's move on and look at the four most common labelling methods:

1. A cloth label is suitable for artifacts including textiles, costumes, fans, hats, felt, lace, rugs, tapestries, upholstery and basketry. The accession number can be written onto an unbleached, cotton twill tape (sometimes Tvek or Reemay can be used in place of cotton tape). The accession numbers can be written using a waterproof, fade-proof, and "bleed proof" pen. The cloth label is stitched to the artifact using loose stiches. Choose a soft cotton thread that is similar in color to the artifact.

2. A pencil label is suitable for paper and paper products such as albums, books, posters, and prints. Clean the surface of the artifact with a clean, soft brush. Use a 2B graphite pencil and use as little pressure as possible when applying the number - you don't want to leave an indent! If an error is made a soft, white, vinyl eraser can be used to erase the accession number. A wax pencil can be used for coated papers, board, photographs, and waxed boxes. 

3. A paper label is suitable for most artifacts and is the best application method for fur, leather, corroded metals, wax, plastic, basketry, and fragile artifacts. The label should be acid free. The accession number can be applied to the label using a graphite pencil and then the tag securely attached to the artifact (i.e. to a button or handle). Remember if an artifact has multiple components attach a paper label to each part.

4. A varnish label is most suitable for hard surfaced artifacts including ceramics, metals, and glass. Use Paraloid/Acryloid B-72 (DO NOT use nail polish). This label is applied in three steps. First apply a base layer, secondly write the accession number in white or black acrylic fluid, and finally apply a top layer (no need to let the layers cure before application). An accession number can be removed using acetone and a cotton swap. A note that this isn't to be used on porous or corroded artifacts, plastics, waxed and laquered/painted artifacts. 

A Note from Emma Lang at Heritage Trust of Nova Scotia

"Hi Everyone, 

As I mentioned in my good-bye note in the Beacon I've taken a new job in the heritage sector, I'm not the Executive Director of the Heritage Trust of Nova Scotia. The Trust is charged with promoting, fostering, and encouraging interest in the preservation of built heritage and cemeteries across the province, through education and advocacy and grant giving. While the Trust's mission goes beyond museums, museums (regardless of if they are in historic structures or not) are a key ally in the work that we do and given my museum background I'm committed to strengthening those ties. I also hope you will continue to use me as a resource when it comes to questions around built heritage, be it how to make your historic structure more accessible, research questions around buildings in your community, help advocating for structures at risk or anything else. I can be reached via email at emmalang@htns.ca or phone: (902) 423-4870. I look forward to hearing from you. I hope you all have a wonderful spring and summer. 

Emma

P.S. You can check out the Trust's website here and on Facebook here.