Northern States Conservation Center
Collections Caretaker eNewsletter
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Welcome to the Collections Caretaker e-Newsletter from Northern States Conservation Center. the newsletter is designed to bring you content that is pertinent to situations we all encounter in our museum and archives work. Feel free to let us know what topics you would like to see featured in Collections Caretaker or even contribute and article. | |  |
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In this Issue
Gallery Guides: An Introduction
Featured Courses
June & July Courses
August Courses
Conferences and Meetings
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Gallery Guides: An Introduction
By Karin Hostetter
Why use a gallery guide? Why can’t the exhibit text be enough? Well written exhibit text should be short enough for visitors to read in a minute or less and specific in content goal throughout the exhibit. There is always more of the story to tell, another audience to reach, or visitor questions to answer. This is where gallery guides can help.
Gallery guides come in many forms – docents, audio cassettes, or self-guided brochures to name a few. Each form has benefits and challenges. They all allow the opportunity to give more information and to expand the targeted audiences. Maybe you know a certain exhibit really speaks to adults and children are not engaged. How about an audio cassette that gives some of the exhibit information in a story format? Or maybe questions from guests after visiting an exhibit frequently center around the same two or three content areas. Conversations with curators determine that a lot more information is available, just no way to share it with visitors. Maybe a self-guided brochure would help.
Another use for gallery guides is to encourage repeat visitation. No one has time to learn everything about every exhibit on one visit. If a series of gallery guides exists, an individual can come back and cover a different topic on each visit. It also allows an out-of-town visitor to explore an exhibit as deeply as time allows from a point of view most clearly related to his/her own interests.
Permanent exhibit text is only an introduction to the exhibit. Gallery guides can take the exploration deeper. What role can a gallery guide serve for you?
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Excerpt from MS011GalleryGuides. If you are thinking of instituting Gallery Guides in your museum or want to improve existing guides, join Karin Hostetter for this short course starting June 6, 2022
Karin Hostetter has over thirty years experience with museum education. With a career that includes natural history museums, cultural history museums (including first person interpretation), nature centers, and zoos, Ms. Hostetter is experienced in interpretive writing, program and curriculum development, and staff and volunteer training. Ms. Hostetter is owner of Interpret This, a consulting company specializing in interpretive writing, program and curriculum development, and volunteer program management. When she is not consulting with other museums, she likes to volunteer and contract teach at them with a special love for preschool and family programs.
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Featured Course:
Training for Interpretive Trainers
It’s often difficult to teach interpretive techniques and principles to others when you may have not had any formal training in interpretation yourself. The course provides ways to develop and deliver interpretive training courses and workshops for cultural sites and staff charged with developing interpretive training for their docents, volunteers, seasonal interpretive staff, or full time interpretive staff.
This course includes a copy of our new e-textbook, the Interpretive Trainers Handbook.
Course Goals: Upon completion of this course participants will:
- Have interpretive training program lesson plans and schedule of instructions drafted out.
- Have a working knowledge of key interpretive elements they should be teaching.
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Join Instructor John Veverka for MS271 Training for Interpretive Trainers starting July 5, 2022 to learn how to train your interpreters in the best interpretation tachniques.
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Featured Course:
Museum Ethics
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This course will examine the role of ethics in museums and related institutions. Topics addressed will include the differences in ethics, laws, and morals; what ethics are and where they come from; the ethical codes that museum professionals follow; how ethics affect professional practices; why ethics are important; and how ethical standards can help museums and related institutions better serve society. Participants in the course will gain an understanding of the importance of ethics in professional museum practice, how codes of ethics are written and why they are important, and will develop an understanding of the most significant codes of ethics subscribed to by museum professionals.
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Join instructor Peggy Schaller for MS267 Museum Ethics starting July 5,2022 to learn more about ethics in Museums.
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Early Bird Discounts Available for Full Length Courses
An Early Bird Discount is available for anyone who signs up for a full length course from museumclasses.org 30 days prior to the start of that course.
Sign up for a full length course up to 30 days prior to its start and save $100.00!
To take advantage of this discount, you must enter coupon code EARLYBIRD at checkout at collectioncare.org
Earlybird Discount Deadline for July 2022 Courses is June 5, 2022
Earlybird Discount Deadline for August 2022 Courses is July 2, 2022
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June Courses
June 6 to 13, 2022
Instructor: Karin Hostetter
Description:
Self-guided brochures, exhibit labels, docent led tours, guest speakers, and audio tours are only a few of the methods available to guide visitors through an exhibit. Explore the strengths and challenges of many different methods and garner resources for further information. Learn how to determine which method works best with which exhibits and how to provide variety to enhance the visitor experience.
July Courses
July 5 to August 1, 2022
Instructor: Peggy Schaller
Description:
Cataloging may not be the most exciting museum task, but it is among the most important. Without a clear knowledge of your holdings, you can't protect, care for, research or exhibit them. Without knowledge of an item's history, you can't properly appreciate its value to your museum. Cataloging Your Collection covers all details needed to catalog a collection. Procedures for handling, measuring and describing all types of objects and materials are discussed in detail. Participants receive sample forms and learn the best practices for numbering artifacts, performing inventory and assessing the condition of objects. Participants practice describing everyday objects and cataloging items from their own collections or households.
July 5 to August 15, 2022
Instructor: Stefani Pendergast
Description:
The only thing worse than mice or cockroaches in your kitchen, is finding them in your museum collection. Participants in Integrated Pest Management for Museums, Libraries and Archives learn low-toxicity methods of controlling infestations. IPM is the standard method for treating incoming items and monitoring holdings. Integrated Pest Management for Museums, Libraries and Archives discusses how infestations occur, helps identify risks, provides feasible mitigation strategies, discusses the different techniques of treating infested materials, and helps you complete an IPM plan and monitoring schedule for your institution. The course covers pest identification, insects, rodent, birds, bats, other mammals and mold infestations, as well as other problems raised by participants.
July 5 to August 1, 2022
Instructor: Karin Hostetter
Description:
So much to say and so little space in which to say it. That is the dilemma when scripting an exhibition. How do you say what needs to be said in the space available? How do you even figure out how to limit the information in the first place? Discover the value of themes, tangibles, intangibles, and universals in writing exhibit text that visitors really want to read -- and remember. Additional resources provided on font size and colors as well as label layout.
July 5 to August 1, 2022
Instructor: Peggy Schaller
Description:
This course will examine the role of ethics in museums and related institutions. Topics addressed will include the differences in ethics, laws, and morals; what ethics are and where they come from; the ethical codes that museum professionals follow; how ethics affect professional practices; why ethics are important; and how ethical standards can help museums and related institutions better serve society. Participants in the course will gain an understanding of the importance of ethics in professional museum practice, how codes of ethics are written and why they are important, and will develop an understanding of the most significant codes of ethics subscribed to by museum professionals.
July 5 to August 1, 2022
Instructor: John Veverka
Description:
It’s often difficult to teach interpretive techniques and principles to others when you may have not had any formal training in interpretation yourself. The course provides ways to develop and deliver interpretive training courses and workshops for cultural sites and staff charged with developing interpretive training for their docents, volunteers, seasonal interpretive staff, or full time interpretive staff.
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August 1 to 26, 2022
Instructor: Laura Elliff Cruz
Description:
Is your collection stacked, packed and stressed? Museum Storage Techniques has the solution. The course builds on its sister course, Museum Facilities and Furniture, which looks at the bigger storage environment.. The Museum Storage Techniques course emphasizes the needs of individual objects and collection groupings. Guidelines for specific materials are provided. Participants learn about storage materials and mounts and the most effective use of trays, drawers, shelves and cabinets.
August 1 to 26, 2022
Instructor: Elizabeth Burton
Description:
Cobwebs in the gallery, dust on the dinosaur skeleton, mice in storage - a dirty museum results in poor visitor experience and poor collections preservation. In a museum, cleanliness really is next to godliness. Museum Cleaning Basics explores everything you need to know about cleaning your collections. Participants learn when to clean - and when not to clean. They also learn how to make those decisions. Topics range from basic housekeeping to specific techniques for specific objects. You will learn why cleaning is important and how to prevent damage when cleaning. We will look at specific techniques that minimize damage while getting the work done. And we will discuss when to call in a specialist, such as a conservator. Students will create a housekeeping manual for their institution.
August 1 to 26, 2022 NEW DATES
Instructor: Sarah Kapellusch
Description:
In this course we will examine the most significant laws and regulations that affect collections management, including the legal organization of museums, responsibilities of governing boards, collections care, loans and gifts, international regulations, intellectual property, cultural appropriation, and freedom of expression.
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Many organizations have put together information on resources for Museums and Covid-19. Here are a few links to those Resources. Check back with these organizations for updates.
Use the drop-down menu in the upper right to find Webinars, Virtual tours and more
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Conferences and Meetings
Double check each organization's website for more information. Some may still be going virtual this year due to continued safety concerns over Covid 19.
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2022
California Association of Museums
CAM Across California: Shifting Terrains will take place over the course of five mini-conferences in San Diego, Los Angeles, the Central Valley, the Bay Area, and Northern California in Spring 2022
American Alliance of Museums, Boston MA
May 19-22, 2022
American Alliance of Museums, Boston, MA
May 19-22, 2022
Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
June 4-10, 2022
Association of Academic Museums and Galleries, Logan, UT
June 14-17, 2022
Association for Living History, Farm and Agricultural Museums, Tacoma, WA
June 23-28, 2022
Association of Midwest Museums, Milwaukee,WI
Virtual July 19; In Person July 20-23,2022
International Foundation for Cultural Property Protection, Denver, CO
August 13-17, 2022
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Society of American Archivists, Boston, MA
August 20-27, 2022
Oklahoma Museums Association, Enid, OK
September 14-16, 2022
Mountain-Plains Museums Association, Tulsa, OK
October 4 - 7, 2022
National Association for Interpretation, Cleveland, OH
November 29-Decemver 3, 2022
American Association of State and Local History, Buffalo, NY
September 14-17, 2022 Virtual and Live
Southeastern Museums Conference, Northwest Arkansas
October 24 - 26, 2022
New England Museum Association, Springfield, MA
November 2-4, 2022
2023
American Alliance of Museums, Denver, CO
May 19-22, 2023
Society of American Archivists, Washington, DC
July 22-29, 2023
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Submissions and Comments
How to submit an article or upcoming workshops for inclusion in the Newsletter:
If you would like to submit an article, notice of an organizational meeting or upcoming workshop for an upcoming Collections Caretaker Newsletter, send your submission to [email protected].
We are always looking for contributions to this newsletter. Submission deadline is the 10th of each month.
Have a comment or suggestion?
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Sincerely,
Helen Alten, Director
Peggy Schaller, Publications Manager
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