[Nhcoll-l] Collections and Covid-19

[Trina Roberts]

Hi all,

Like many of the rest of your collections, NHMLA and La Brea Tar Pits are
now closed to visitors--we have canceled research visits and tours through
April 10, and will assess the possibility of re-opening as the situation
changes.  The museums are also closed to the public as of this afternoon.
We currently hope to keep collections operations going, just without
outside access, but of course that depends on staff availability and
institutional decisions about who should be at work.

Much harder, it turns out, has been how to accommodate collections staff as
the institution moves somewhat rapidly to a much heavier reliance on
telecommuting.  I can't say we were very well prepared for this.  Three
suggestions for those of you who have not yet reached this point, should
you choose to learn from my mistakes:

1) Decide whether you're prepared to let staff take collection items home
to work on, and under what conditions and with what limitations.  Write
that policy and get it approved now.  Talk to your insurer if your
collection is insured, because they and your underwriters may need to be in
on this conversation.
2) Start scanning.  I bet you're all sitting on as many piles of documents
and data that you've been wanting to transcribe/digitize some day as we
are.  If you have staff who are forced to self-quarantine or work from
home, you may want digital projects ready to go.
3) If you need additional IT support, VPNs, software licenses, training,
etc for collection staff to access databases or files from home, and for
all of them to want to do this *simultaneously*, start getting that into
place.

Good luck and stay healthy, everyone!

--Trina


--
Trina E. Roberts, Ph.D.
Associate VP, Collections
Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County
213-763-3330
troberts at nhm.org
she, her, hers


On Thu, Mar 12, 2020 at 6:29 AM Richard Rabeler <rabeler at umich.edu> wrote:

> Colleagues:
>
> We are actively discussing plans for our research museum collections at
> the University of Michigan Research Museums Center over the next month or
> so, especially as it relates to students, volunteers, and visitors.
>
> While I have seen comments on AAMG-L about how people associated with
> public galleries are being impacted, I don't recall seeing the same from
> the collections community.  I suspect some of you, esp. in university
> collections, have been faced with class cancellations and restrictions on
> travel and possibly visitors and you are likely having similar
> conversations.
>
> Out of curiosity, how are you planning to handle activities in your
> collections?
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Rich Rabeler,
> Senior Collection Manager
> University of Michigan Herbarium
>
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