August 2023 Update

TRACK

We have had some incredibly helpful feedback in our latest round of piloting, and are slowly but surely working through this input and incorporating suggestions into the assessment document. This morning's TRACK working group meeting felt very productive as the group made decisions about the program timeline, assessment process, and more. 

The Tuesdays on TRACK webinar series continues. We now have five webinars under our belt and have begun to reach out to museums that receive funding from CMAP. A new requirement of CMAP is participation in TRACK, and this year that means participating in at least four Tuesday on TRACK webinars, and we want to make sure that everyone meets this requirement. Our next webinar is being facilitated by Virginia Stephen and will explore different types of boards and what they do. This is a great opportunity for board members (new and old!) to learn about governance options and alternatives that can help your museum move forward. To register, click here.

Mi'kmaq Cultural Training Day

Registration for the Mi'kmaq cultural training day in Digby is open! One of the key messages from last year's Unlocking Collections gatherings with Mi'kmaq communities was that museum workers need cultural awareness training. This will be our fourth session and every one has resulted in some wonderful learning. There is no limit to the number of people you can send, and we hope to see staff, board members and volunteers from every museum in the Southwest region and beyond! Join Theresa and Roger, and meet the new ANSM team on this important day.

ANSM Conference 

Another upcoming training opportunity is our annual conference. This is the first time we'll be getting together in-person since before COVID, so we are a tad excited. You can read all about the program, venue, and financial assistance for attending on our website.

CollectiveAccess & NovaMuse

A number of updates have just been implemented in the database as part of our MAP-funding AV inventory project. Last night, all the databases were updated to the latest version of CollectiveAccess, and have had metadata extraction, fixity checks, and Whisper transcription for av materials added. And we've also made a little change to NovaMuse. Ever since we launched the site in 2012 we've been sorting/displaying search results in order by accession number. We are changing this so that recently added records will appear at the top of the list. With this ever-evolving display of records, we hope that it will be a bit more interesting to our online community and also demonstrate that museums are actively working in their collections.

Your image lesson of the month is a bit different from previous ones. During this summer's site visits we've been hearing a lot of comments about image quality - frustrations with digitization by students, a desire to go back and redo early photos because of new lessons learned, and hopefulness that future digitization is of a higher quality. These are some big issues. Let's look at each one:

1. Student digitization work - training & supervision are the best things to combat these frustrations. It is easy to make assumptions around young people and technology, but students need to hear that digitization work becomes part of the museum's permanent and professional record...part of its public obligations. They also need hands-on training on photography setup, equipment use, image processing and naming. If you don't feel well-equipped to give that training, reach out for help, or find other tasks for the students to tackle. If students are working on digitization, it is absolutely critical to check their images and work throughout their time with the museum. Don't slack off on this. Give feedback, suggestions, and guidance. 

2. Retaking photos - this really underscores the above point...the need to take your time and make sure anyone involved in digitization has the training and supervision that they need. If this is done properly, there won't be any need to redo digitization work. But if you find yourself in this situation, be sure to plan out the work. Roll it into inventory, or your collections management game plan so that it doesn't seem like a burdensome task. 

3. Improving digitization quality - Moving forward, ensuring that everyone understands the "why" of digitization needs to be the first step. Once everyone is on that same page, it will be easier for people to put in the time and attention to detail to capture good images. We've also said before that it can be easier to start with 2-dimensional digitization of photos, postcards, letters etc. before you dive into 3-dimensional objects. When you move to 3-d, ANSM has a photography studio available to members to borrow, and we can also help you set up your own studio. We also offer digitization support and training through our Advisory Service.

Unlocking Collections

AV Survey Results

What a difference a month makes. Last month we said thank you for completing the online survey and were actively booking site visits. Now we can share the results of the survey and the amazing news that we've physically inventoried 1,426 audio and video recordings. 186 of these have cultural affiliations noted on their labels and/or documentation. To give you a sense of how quickly these numbers are growing, on Monday we went out an update to community members who joined us at an Unlocking gathering last year and had 'only' inventoried 1,032 recordings. Having heard loud and clear the importance of finding recordings of elders and community events, we are thrilled to be able to share updates like this and show communities the care that has been given these recordings, and that digitization planning is underway.

Hub training sessions are going well, and if your museum is a member of the Advisory Service and hasn't signed up yet, you still have three opportunities: Sept.6 in LaHave, Sept.14 in Enfield, and Sept.27 in Middleton. Click here to register for this free training opoportunity.

Our friends at CNSA are also thrilled with the inventory progress and we're looking forward to strategizing next steps and digitization options for our shared members.

Educational Partnerships

We said goodbye to Katie and Lydia this month, and we did our best to give them a good send off. They accomplished so much to help us and museums. It was lovely to have them on our team. And in usual ANSM style, we are now looking ahead to new opportunities. This fall we will be hosting an MSVU student who will be helping with NovaMuseEd initiatives. We recently confirmed our participation in the annual Social Studies teachers conference so this timing is perfect. 

We also got some great news from the University of Toronto this month. Our proposal to work with their Masters in Museum Studies students on a teaser exhibit about Pere Clarence d'Entremont's life and work for the Acadian World Congress was accepted! We've been chasing funding for this project (another idea that came out of the Unlocking gatherings) since last fall so this is very exciting. We'll be framing up a work plan and timeline over the coming weeks and are also keeping fingers crossed for some additional support to cover travel & print/design costs. It is really heartwarming how everyone wants to support Unlocking initiatives. 

Farewell from Lydia

After a wonderful 7 weeks, my time as an intern at ANSM has end! I am so fortunate and thankful that, through Saint Mary’s University, I have been able to work with ANSM this summer. I have enjoyed having the opportunity to learn and grow surrounded by the most wonderful staff members I have had the pleasure of working with. Working at ANSM provided me with the unique experience of seeing the “behind the scenes” that helps keep our Nova Scotia museums moving forward. I have been so inspired by the hard work and dedication that everybody brings to the heritage sector, and I can only hope that I can bring a similar passion to the field one day.

I am also very fortunate that I was given the opportunity to work on so many different projects throughout the summer. I especially enjoyed working on our A/V Hub training project, as I was given the task of diving into research about A/V material and equipment care and conservation, assisting in developing a presentation for the training sessions. Additionally, I put together a database of potential digitization resources that can be utilized in future digitization projects. It has been a pleasure to see how the work I have done is being implemented in the real-world, and that it is used to help museums improve and learn about their collections.

I also worked extensively on cleaning up the CollectiveAccess database. I scanned through thousands of records, and made manual changes to somewhere around 2,000, ensuring information could be found about the condition of the object in the newly established “Condition & Treatment” field. While exhaustive and tedious, this helped me to achieve a greater understanding of the database, as well as get a look into some of the objects in holding at Nova Scotia Museums. I also worked on adding information to the Made in Nova Scotia database by reading material, and supplementing new information for existing entries, or creating entirely new ones.

I am infinitely grateful to ANSM for all I have learned, and for the support they have given me. As I continue my education at the University of Edinburgh this fall, I am confident that a strong foundation for museum work has been laid because of my work at ANSM.

~Lydia

Farewell from Katie

Hello Everyone,

The time has come for me to say goodbye to the lovely people at ANSM. Where did the last 14 weeks go? I feel like I just started my internship journey and now it’s over.

While with ANSM, I had the opportunity to…

• work with CollectiveAccess and help museums by adding images and data cleaning
• refresh member museums' records on Artefacts Canada
• attend TRACK webinars
• research and create advocacy materials
• review older resources and make suggestions for updates
• write blog posts on webinars I viewed
• work on the A/V Inventory project, including making two site visits

Even though I was only with ANSM two days a week, I feel I accomplished a lot. I am very grateful for being given the opportunity to participate in a split internship, remotely with ANSM and in-person with Randall House Museum, as I got to experience the best of both worlds.

A big thank you to Karin, for allowing me to be a part of the ANSM team. It’s been a pleasure!

All the best,

Katie

Webinar Review - Everything You Need to Know about Building a Newsletter

Hi everyone! Katie here. Today, I'd like to share some highlights from the CanadaHelps webinar, Everything you Need to Know about Building a Newsletter. It originally took place on June 22, 2023, and was presented by Tamara Rahimi. Even though this webinar was charity-based, the information is transferable and can easily be applied and adapted to museums and historic sites regardless of their charitable status.

Why Produce a Newsletter?

Rahimi feels that a newsletter gives you the opportunity to maintain regular communications with your supporters. They can assist in building trust, making connections and educating people about your organization. Newsletters are a great outlet to showcase your site by providing updates on what you've been doing, what you are planning on doing and the impact you have on your community or sector. These are all things that can improve supporter confident and provide transparency. Some supporters will even start to look forward to seeing your newsletter in their inbox. 

The Value of a Good Newsletter

According to MailChimp, charity emails have a higher rate of being opened, 25% more in fact, compared to other industries. This certainly works in the favour of museums!

This medium reaches all generations, which is a huge bonus. Newsletters are easy to print off, forward on to friends, post on social media and gives people something to talk about. All these things contribute to expanding your reach.

Rahimi reminded that a good newsletter will educate and inspire the reader. Using good visuals, ones that match your newsletter's goal, theme or purpose, provoke emotion far better than words alone. Show off your achievements, let people know your value and place in the community, and share with them why you can't do it alone. Using a Call to Action is imperative. Tell your readers what you want them to do. If you want them to click a link, share a story, tag a friend or make a donation, this is the time to ask!

What else can a Newsletter do for my Museum?

Attract Volunteers

Some interesting statistics were shared in the webinar. Did you know that 58% of charities are run solely by volunteers? Across Canada, the volunteer sector is waiting for a rebound, as volunteer numbers are lower than before the pandemic. 

Rahimi encouraged participants to think of a newsletter as a great recruiting platform. Since youalready have a captive audience that supports your organization on some level, since they are subscribed to your newsletter, make the ask! Use their motivations to get them interested in you. Some of the top reasons why people volunteer - they want to learn new skills, they have a genuine interest in wanting to help, for self-fulfillment, they may have a personal connection to the cause, or to gain experience. Share volunteer opportunities, let them know what they'd be doing, humanize the volunteer experience and share volunteer wins and success stories to attract new volunteers to your team. 

Fundraising

Newsletters are a great way to promote your campaign and to gain new donors, while encouraging past donors to give again. Be sure to outline the purpose of your campaign and share stories and images. Don't forget to include timelines regarding what you are doing or will be doing, and how the raised funds will be spent. The more transparent you can be, the better. Include a link to your online donation form so that the donation experienc eis as easy and seamless as possible. It never hurts to include a phone number too, as some people don't like donating online.

Trust Building

Storytelling and testimonials can be excellent ways to build trust. According to CanadaHelps, 23% of people don't give because they don't believe the money is being spent responsibly or they just don't trust the organization. To curb this, use numbers to prove your track record. Imagine being able to share something like this: that thanks to a fundraiser, the  museum was able to restore three paintings in its collection. 

Rahimi cautioned the importance of including an overview of exactly where your donors' money is going. If you're running a program, what is the cost to run it? How long is it? Who participates? What are your other sources of revenue? You can even go one step further and share an impact report. This report is a more detailed document on financial data, key goals and more; it educates readers and builds greater trust. 

What does a good newsletter look like?

Rahimi reminded that content should be easy for your reader to scan through. Using bullet points, easy to read fonts, highlighting key areas, using heads, sub-headings, short blocks of text and good images will all help to tell your story. If you don't grab your reader's attention in the first few seconds, they may stop reading.  

Before you jump into your newsletter writing, focus on a goal, purpose or theme, will help you to narrow down the key content that you are trying to express. If your newsletter isn't focused ,your audience will either stop reading or they will become confused about the purpose of your newsletter. keep your writing clear, concise, and make sure your reader knows exatlt what you want them to do.

Did You Know?

Being consistent when sending out your newsletter is another way to build trust. A good target is once a month, unless you have a big campaign coming up, such as Giving Tuesday.

Good quality images that are relevant to your content are a must. Your images should reflect the goal, purpose or theme of your newsletter. Your reader should be able to identify what your newsletter if about as soon as they see that first image. 

Rahimi said that 'Donate Now' buttons are important, but 'Unsubscribe' buttons are just as important. Infact, in Canada it is mandatory to have an easy-to-locate button or link for unsunscribing. It has other benefits too, as this simple button helps to improve transparency and shows that you respect your supporters' decisions. After all, just because someone unsubscribes from your newsletter, doesn't mean that they no longer support your organization. 

Depending on the software that you are using, you can schedule a delivery time for your newsletter. This can be a very helpful feature when it comes to planning and organizing. Some programs also allow you to insert the recipients name in the subject line, which can help your organization build a personal connection and relationship with your reader. 

So, do you have a Newsletter?

If newsletters are not already a part of your communication plan, you might want to consider adding them. The value of a well thought-out newsletter is worth the effort. If you are already producing a newsletter, is it working for you or is there room for improvement?

I hope this review helps you and your museum unleash the potential that newsletters can bring to your facility. It's just one way you can promote all the wonderful things that you and your museum are doing!

The full webinar can be viewed here.