[Nhcoll-l] Care & Use of Natural History Museum Collections Class--your input requested

Fri Mar 7 14:27:19 EST 2014

Hello Heather and Dave, 

Interesting comments, Dave. I teach 'Archaeological Collections Management' and 'Archaeological Conservation' to undergraduates, and have had a host of volunteers, short term staff and interns over the past 25 years. When interviewing, always ask students and applicants about their hobbies. This gives me a good sense of their manual dexterity and familiarity with different types of materials. If they say tying fishing flies, video gaming or hat making, like you say, music to my ears. The snowboarders and rock climbers I start with durable collections and allow them the chance to learn and prove their abilities. 

As for readings, I would look in the literature on collection applications of pXRF, DNA and isotope analysis. We are experimenting with 3D printing, but I have not written anything about it yet. 

Barbara 

Dr. Barbara J. Winter 
Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology 
Department of Archaeology 
Faculty of the Environment 
Simon Fraser University 
8888 University Drive 
Burnaby, BC V5A 1S6 

t. 778.782.3325 
f. 778.782.5666 
bwinter at sfu.ca 
www.sfu.museum 

----- Original Message -----

From: "David Dyer" <DDyer at ohiohistory.org> 
To: "Heather Lerner" <hlerner at gmail.com>, nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu 
Sent: Friday, March 7, 2014 11:04:30 AM 
Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] Care & Use of Natural History Museum Collections Class--your input requested 

Hi Heather, 

The number one skill that I would like to see in incoming curators, collections managers, students, and others is a skill that is basic and fundamental to the museum profession but is not often discussed, and that is the basic sensitivity and care in handling museum specimens. For lack of a better term, I’ve called it “museum sensibility”. It’s not quantifiable and not easy to discern in job interviews, but is critical to the preservation of museum specimens and to do one’s job as a museum professional. It seems to be an innate skill, that you either naturally have it or you don’t - but it can be learned. We’ve all seen examples of gross mishandling of specimens and probably can share many horror stories. In my career, I’ve seen museum directors, curators, respected scientists, etc. who have authority over and direct access to natural history collections who demonstrate abominable and destructive care of collections. Usually this is not intentional but rather is from a lack of sensitivity or training. On the other hand, I’ve seen high school interns and beginning undergraduate students who have a remarkable sense of how to handle and care for specimens. In my last position, I hired and trained probably about 75 university students over the years to work directly in collections care. I would always try to discern in interviews and from references if they have the requisite skills and personality traits that translate to being thoughtful and careful in handling specimens and maintaining a collection. Such phrases as “I’m a little bit OCD” or “I’m very organized” were music to my ears! Anyway, I think it’s imperative that the museum community teach these skills to the next generation of museum professionals, and find a way to make it demonstrable in selecting candidates for collections-related positions. 

Dave Dyer 

========================================================== 
David L. Dyer / Curator of Natural History 
Ohio Historical Society / 800 East 17 th Ave. Columbus, Ohio 43211 
p. 614-298-2055 / f. 614-298-2089 / ddyer at ohiohistory.org 
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Visit the Natural History Blog at : http://apps.ohiohistory.org/naturalhistory/ 

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From: nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu [mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Heather Lerner 
Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2014 2:29 PM 
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu 
Subject: [Nhcoll-l] Care & Use of Natural History Museum Collections Class--your input requested 

I have the wonderful opportunity to be the director at the Joseph Moore 
Museum at Earlham College. With that position, I get to teach one course 
per year in "Museum Studies." My goals with the course are to first train 
students in the most useful skills they will need to go on as collections 
managers or curators or researchers who use collections, and second, for 
students who may never work in/for a museum in the future, to convince them 
of the importance of biological collections so that they will be educated 
lifelong museum advocates. 
Here is where I ask for *your input:* 
(1) what are the *skills *you want incoming collections manager, graduate 

students or curators to have? 

(2) we will read an article each week in which someone has published their 
research using specimens/collections as a primary source of 
information/data. For example, ancient DNA, isotope, morphological studies. 
What are some of the best *examples of collections-based research* you 

thinkI should include? 

Thanks for your input, 

Heather 

-- 

Heather 

******************************************* 
Heather R. L. Lerner, Ph.D., M.S. 
Joseph Moore Museum Director 
Assistant Professor of Biology 
Earlham College 
801 National Road West 
Richmond IN 47374 

******************************************* 
Google Voice: 949-GENOMES 
Email: hlerner at gmail.com 
http://heatherlerner.com/ 
******************************************* 
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