Volunteering Week Four

More of the same - we carried on looking through boxes to see what had numbers and what needed numbers. Quite a few specimens had numbers that weren't meant to exist (they didn't correspond to anything) so we had to re-number quite a lot of stuff. The MINISIS software worked brilliantly both days, and I think we've ironed out any teething issues - we all know how and what to enter and where to enter it, and I think the records we've been making are pretty full!

We found this skull in the bottom of one of the boxes. We have no idea what it is?! It looks almost like it wants to be a Triceratops, with the ridge at the top. It obviously had large horns. That's my hand for some sort of scale - anybody have any ideas?

Wartime posters in one of the downstairs rooms.

A brilliant entry in the accessions book!

The warehouse stores all sorts of objects, not just Natural Science. This shelf is behind the computer.

Muntjac-In-A-Box! (Eleven boxes containing Muntjac deer bones. Lukas and I wanted to assemble them with blu-tac. This idea didn't go down well).

All in all, I'm loving being a NatSciVol! The work is varied, interesting, weird, funny, tedious, amazing and rewarding all at the same time. We have tracked down things that were missing; we've added a decent amount of specimens to the catalogue; we've photographed a lot of the birds (mostly in glass cases); and we think we've found the source of the Llama head which is sitting on a shelf. I could quite easily do this more often, two days a week just isn't enough! We're nearly halfway through the project - next week (Wednesday), we will be at Thinktank Museum to do a Meet The Volunteer day. On August 19th the Museums Collection Centre will be open to the public so you can come down and see some of the objects we have been working with! 

Volunteering; The Third Week

Week Three! We *finally* managed to get the database software (MINISIS) working for half of the day, so we could begin to transfer items from the spreadsheet to the database. We also carried on with checking specimens from the shelves.

 Quite a small Giant Anteater - only 110cm long (can grow to over 200cm long!)

 

 Me, with a strange, unlabelled piece of human bone we found in a box.

We found a second piece of bone, identical to the first. Using a model skelly that is lying on a shelf, we determined that we had found two pieces of a pelvis! We were then able to create a new record on the database for these.

Volunteering Week Two

In the second week of volunteering, we only did one day. We continued to look at the taxidermy specimens on the shelves and tried to trace them in the written accession books. Not all were present, and so we carried on producing basic computer records on Excel, with up to date details such as measurements and a full condition report.

 I like the accession books, they're very interesting to read, but can sometimes be quite difficult to understand!

 Specimen of the week - mongoose avec snake! There are two of these, fairly identical. Gross.

 Sarah King, a post-doc from my uni department is also on the placement this summer. We take it in turns to handle the specimens and wear the body suits.

A constant hazard - hence the body suits!

Allotment Peppers

Bought as plantlings, grown in my bedroom away from slugs and then planted in the greenhouse on my second allotment when they started to flower. Doing pretty well! They are small plants, more like shrubs, but they all have loads of fruits or flowers on. Woooooo!

At least *something* is growing this year...

Vanilla Cheesecake Indulgence

On Friday, I fancied cake. Something rich and melty and sugary. I think the pictures here speak for themselves.

Yummy Yummy In My Tummy!

Uke-Lady

I bought a ukulele today.

He is called Stanley.

Why have I bought a uke? Well, one of my aims for this year was to learn to play an instrument. I don't have a musical bone in my body, I can't read music and I have rubbish hand-eye co-ordination. However, I'm quite fond of a challenge! I was going to buy a bass geetar, but I spent the money...

:-D

Volunteering

I started in my role as a Natural Science Volunteer today! I am based at the Museum Collection Centre (MCC) in Birmingham and am working on behalf of the Museums Trust. My work will involve carrying out condition reports, accessioning objects into the collection, taking photographs and generally bringing the catalogues up to date, with a view to setting up a new display at Thinktank in a few years time.

As a NatSciVol, I am mainly working with birds and mammals - taxidermied animals as well as skins, pelts, bones, and today, a piece of whale baleen! Already it has become such a varied place to work.

Today we had a more hands on tutorial and had a go at entering some details into the database, and started to use the paper records in order to determine what is already recorded and what isn't. Lukas and I had to examine skulls and jaw bones for certain pieces of information, enter these into the system, and then take measurements and photos of the specimen. It is not a job that can be rushed! Some pieces are very fragile, and it's not often you get given a skull from a dolphin as a gift..

I am due to work two days a week for the next three months, so I am planning on blogging at the end of each week. Here are some pics from today:

You can also keep up to date with the volunteering here.