Skip to main content

Looking Outside the Museum World

Recently at AAM 2009 in Philly I went to a session called "Eye On Design II." The point of the session was to have ten people from the museum world look outside the museum world for inspiration. The concept is not new to me and I think it is important for anyone to look outside their career field for inspiration. Frankly, it's a pretty simple way to keep the creative juices flowing. Until recently I have always looked to the education field for inspiration. I mean after all there are a lot of similarities. Both fields have the goal of instilling knowledge. Both often have inadequate budgets and all to often staffs are not really paid what they are worth. Through several educational podcasts that I listen to I've found teachers are fabulous resources for figuring out how to achieve wonderful things with no budget. But this session at AAM has inspired me to open my eyes even more and search out other fields that can inspire my work in museums.

Popular posts from this blog

Updating and Organizing

Since changing jobs I've gotten behind on posting my presentation handouts and updating my CV.  So I've spent the evening updating my CV, my Linked In profile, my website, and my slideshare account.  I'm not finished yet, but I should be in the next few days. Whew, I do not recommend getting this far behind in keeping your online information current!

Guided Access - Can It Aid in Device Management? – Part 2

In my last post I covered how Guided Access is being used to help us manage the iPads in our Reflection Areas. This time I want to share how Guided Access has worked on our iPod touches. The museum has 80 4th generation iPod Touches with our iOS app installed available for guests to check out. These are free thanks to the generous sponsorship of Cox Communications. After talking to colleagues at other institutions about their experiences, and trying out several alternatives, the decision was made to use iPod cases that do not cover the Home button. Even though covering the Home button could have helped control the devices, the benefits of allowing staff and knowledgeable users to easily service devices when needed seemed to outweigh the potential costs of leaving the Home button accessible. To conserve battery life and prevent new content from being installed on the iPods, we decided to use Apple's iPhone Configuration Utility to create a configuration profile to block access to ce...

What's in My Toolbox?

I often get asked about what supplies I keep on hand at my own house for helping me organize and care for historical objects. I’ll confess I’ve not been the best at keeping them organized but I’ve recently been inspired to get my tools more organized. But I’ll share with you some of my top tools and you might be surprised at how many you might already have too. A #2 mechanical pencil - We try to do no harm to what we’re taking care of and that also means that the majority of things we do needs to be reversible. Hence pencil not ink. I prefer #2 pencils because they tend not to smudge. A gum eraser - Mistakes happen. I prefer gum erasers because they are softer and tend to cause less damage. The last thing you want to do is rub a whole in your photo or document while you are trying to erase something. But they are messy so be prepared for that with brushes, a trash can and a handy vac. pH testing pe...