First Day Back As A Museum Volunteer

[DE&i]

Hi everyone,

This year im going to write a diary for my blog on the days i can make it into my local museum as a volunteer with photos of various fossils they have in there collections.

Has any other volunteers here on the forum started back yet who also keeps a log of their activities.

I cant wait to get started, the doors open in 20 mins for me to give my 4 hours worth.

Speak soon.

Regards,

Darren.

Edited January 7, 2014 by DarrenElliot

[DE&i]

And what a great morning it was :

It was good to get back to the Museum especially due to family and work commitments time is precious. So I was there today 10am prompt just as the doors opened for my usual scheduled 4 hours. After I got the New Year pleasantries out the way with my colleagues it was down into the basement of the museum. This is where the vaults are and for me to be given my allocated fossil specimen box to work through at my leisure.

As I wait in anticipation I’m handed a very old musty smelling box which appears to have seen better days. The project set for the volunteers in the geology department is to rehouse all geological finds into brand new boxes and individually set into various thicknesses of foam.

My box is labelled (Inferior Oolite Jurassic 7) of which I could kind of sensed things where rattling around inside as I carried up the stairs out of the basement and into the laboratory.

I decided to work on the large ammonite labelled (Parkonsonia inferior Oolite Cornbrash) it also had a reference number which is logged into the museums data base for a full description, where and who it was found by etc.

As you can see it sits badly in a white cardboard carton, so I thought if we are going to rehouse them in new boxes ill recycle the old box lid and make a new cardboard carton from it. I then carefully placed the ammonite on some thick foam, drew around it then cut out the shape of the ammonite with a scalpel.

I then placed a very thin piece of foam in my newly made carton that I made, and then placed the thick foam on top with the ammonite sitting snuggly inside of the ammonite shape I cut off from it, and then put the original label back in with it.

Now those four hours seemed to have flown by with little to show but as my collegues kept telling me “ steady , steady we have all the time in the world , let’s have another brew “

Really looking forward to next Tuesday.

Regards,

Darren.

[Auspex]

How satisfyingly exciting, and you can refer to folks at a museum as colleagues

[DE&i]

Satisfying indeed...im labelled as the " new boy " who can make a good cup of tea at the moment . They have some great geological tales to tell which are a joy to hear.

[MarleysGh0st]

Has any other volunteers here on the forum started back yet who also keeps a log of their activities.

I've been in sunny, warm California for the holidays. Now that I'm back in cold and snowy New York State, my first day back at the museum will be tomorrow. I don't blog about my activities, but I might mention some of what I'm working on, from time to time.

I never can tell what work I'll be doing on any particular day, since it's often a matter of what immediate priorities the collection manager has, but I have two ongoing projects at the moment. The first is practicing with georeferencing, which will be our new standard for identifying localities. The second is working with Google Scholar, developing a profile in which the museum collection will substitute for an author. The resulting profile will help document the impact the collection has on the scientific community, by identifying papers that have referenced material from the collection and by tracking citations to those papers.

[DE&i]

Hi MarleysGh0st,

Now to me that sounds incredibly interesting, would I be correct in saying you are well-versed in the work you do. That would be a dream come true to get to that sort of standard.

Regards,

Darren.

[MarleysGh0st]

These projects are new to me, but I'm a firmware engineer, professionally, so I'm working with computers comes naturally.

In other words, I waste enough time on the internet already, so it's nice to do something productive with it.

[DE&i]

These projects are new to me, but I'm a firmware engineer, professionally, so I'm working with computers comes naturally.

In other words, I waste enough time on the internet already, so it's nice to do something productive with it.

Thats wonderful...i handle Oxford clay on a daily basis at my place of work and find the occasional fossil now and again .

So for me to handle fossils at our local museum where a majority of the fossils where found from the Oxford clay , i feel as though i can give some (feedback / information) to the museum.

[Ammojoe]

Very interesting, and insightful Darren! Thanks for sharing; I enjoyed hearing about your experiences working for the museum. It's fascinating to see and hear about the time consuming processes that go on 'behind the scenes'. Have you read a book called 'Dry Store Room No. 1: The Secret Life of the Natural History Museum'? I'd recommend it if you haven't, it's an interesting read.

Edited January 8, 2014 by Ammojoe

[DE&i]

"...changes wrought by advances in technology and molecular biology – 'spare' bones from an extinct giant bird suddenly become cutting-edge science with the new knowledge that DNA can be extracted from them, and ancient fish are tested with the latest equipment that is able to measure rises in pollution.”

This is exactly why museum collections exist (and must be carefully curated and documented); not to attract public visitors with fascinating displays, but to preserve in perpetuity musty specimens, in the basement, whose worth to future researchers cannot yet be dreamt of.

[FossilDudeCO]

great idea Darren. I start back at the end on January, I am sure they wouldn't mind me snapping a few pics of the fun stuff they hide!

[DE&i]

I can totally appreciate with what you are saying Sully….it would be interesting to see what’s on your agenda.

Regards,

Darren.