Good morning!<br><br>I myself am currently working on a geological teaching collection at the CMU Museum of Cultural and Natural History, and have assembled several teaching collections for loan in the past. I would get a better idea on what you may need if you could tell me, are you focusing on teaching collections that are portable and available as outgoing loans, collections that remain in-house, or both?<br>
<br>In my experience, the outgoing teaching collections were always designed and expected to be handled, so only expendable, very common specimens would be included so it is no big loss if something happens to one of them. I have seen carved ethafoam and acid-free boxes used to house the specimens within an overall tote. I would like to note that if something like a rock or mineral teaching collection is on your to do list, it is key to keep the tote itself fairly small (i.e., use the half sized ones as opposed to the larger ones) because a collection of these types of specimens becomes heavy pretty quickly.<br>
<br>The current collection I am creating now is an in-house design, and I am heading in the direction of not having the specimens be physically touchable (due primarily to possible loss and secondarily to possible damage). We are looking at having a space under two of our pertinent exhibits that will hold two rows of six drawers each, with the specimens stabilized under plexiglass. To demonstrate things like mineral properties that students would ideally be able to perform themselves, I want to fit props such as streak plates marked with the pertinent mineral next to the specimen as a compromise between access and security.<br>
<br>As far as supplying people with literature on the subject, what do you think about using the National Park Service Conservograms? This way you could pick out the pertinent topics.<br><br><a href="http://www.nps.gov/museum/publications/conserveogram/cons_toc.html#collectionpreservation">http://www.nps.gov/museum/publications/conserveogram/cons_toc.html#collectionpreservation</a><br>
<br>I would be delighted to talk with you more about this sort of thing if you would find it helpful.<br><br>Have a great day!<br><br>Dr. Amy Smith, Volunteer<br>
Central Michigan University Museum of Cultural and Natural History<br>
Mt. Pleasant, MI 48859<br>
<a href="http://bluepteranodon.tk/" target="_blank">http://bluepteranodon.tk/</a><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Dec 6, 2012 at 12:27 PM, Susan Gallagher <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:sugal@voicenet.com" target="_blank">sugal@voicenet.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">Chief Naturalist</blockquote></div><br>