[Nhcoll-l] Outsourcing prep

[Bryant, James]

Of course "Live Science" is wildly popular! It should be expanded, obviously. Becky: what would be the argument at NCB against expanding it? This is what the public wants to know, wants to see, and wants to learn DIRECTLY about: I remember the reports from the staff at the first phase of the Darwin Center in London, and their docent managers said that  - more than the chance to see the collections behind-the-scenes - the visitors enjoyed talking to the scientists. Why would any of our institutions want to deny our supporters (the public) these kinds of experiences? Why couldn't one of the principle public programs of any natural science institution be the preparation and management of its collections? Maybe become the basis for a formal instructional program (the school within a museum concept)...

James

James M. Bryant
Curator of Natural History
Museum Department, City of Riverside
3580 Mission Inn Avenue
Riverside, CA 92501
(951) 826-5273
(951) 369-4970 FAX
jbryant at riversideca.gov
From: nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu [mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Desjardins, R.B.
Sent: Monday, June 11, 2012 11:44 PM
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: [Nhcoll-l] Outsourcing prep

Thanks everyone for your advice and thoughts on this matter. I  appreciate it.   One issue that has not been raised yet is that:  I suspect that anyone who knows how to do this work, and do it well, is already associated with a museum and not willing to take on any more. Or if they are (like the few offers I have gotten) we would have to wait until their schedules are open, rather than be on our time table.

Naturalis does have a "Live Science" area where bird or mammal specimen prep is performed every day for the public and it is wildly popular.  My guess is that they would keep this but all other prep would go.

Thanks again,

Becky Desjardins

NCB Naturalis
Leiden, Netherlands


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