Module 5: Curation of ethnobiology collections

Photos © RMCA

LOCATION: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK

DURATION AND  DATE:   Lunch-to-lunch meeting, 24-25/06/2013 

TRAINERS: Pat Griggs, Mark Nesbitt (Kew), Luba Dovgan Nurse (Denmark).

SHORT DESCRIPTION OF THE TRAINING: Many natural history museums contain artefacts and raw materials demonstrating use of natural materials by humans. These present special challenges to curators in storage, cataloguing, ethics and law, funding, and  deterioration and conservation. This short course tackles these questions through modern museum methods, and the experience of the Economic Botany Collection at the Royal Botanic Gardens of Kew (UK). The course is relevant to both plant and animal collections.

PROGRAMME:

Day 1
12.30- 13.45        Lunch

13.45 -14.15        Introduction

14.15-15.30         Tour of Economic Botany Collection to cover: 
                                                - History of such collections
                                                - Current user profiles
                                                - Acquisitions policies
                                                - Relationships with indigenous communities

15.30-16.00         Tea

16.30-17.00         Legal and ethical aspects

17.00-18.00         Cataloguing and data standards

18.00-19.00         Break for local hotel check-in (optional drinks in The Botanist pub)

19.00-20.30         Dinner at ASK restaurant on Kew Green

Day 2

09.30-11.00         Introduction to agents of deterioration
                               Environmental control
                               Material specific to plants/animals

11.00-11.30         Tea

11.30-12.30         Packing and storage
                               Practical exercises

12.30-13.30         Lunch

13.30-14.30        Developing user communities
                              Funding
                              Museum networks

14.30-15.30         Discussion/conclusions

15.30                    Departure

(15.30-16.30       Optional tour of herbarium and library)

COSTS: There is no registration fee. Lunch will be provided for all participants on the day of arrival and the day of departure. Transport and accommodation costs must be covered by the participants.

For more information, please contact: kim.jacobsen [at] africamuseum.be or larissa.smirnova [at] africamuseum.be