The days around Christmas are usually a bit calmer and easy going than the rest of the year. For me, it’s traditionally the time to tidy up my room and prepare for the upcoming year. I usually end up with a lot of boxes, one saying “projects in the works” for things I started off working on but for one reason or the other couldn’t follow through. There are a lot of things inside this time and there would be even more if it could contain virtual things like blog posts.

Looking forward to 2019 I can see it becoming an even more stressful year than 2018, both at work and in private. So, while I will work on (and hopefully finish) some of the blog posts in my virtual “projects in the works” box, I also know that I won’t be able to hang around the usual forums of museum professionals this year and thus won’t be able to frequently place a “Hey, how about writing something for Registrar Trek?” when I stumble upon some great story.

So, now it’s up to you. I ask you to either contribute your own stories and articles or encourage others who did something you think should be featured here. I can provide some help with editing and of course, we do have our team of translators on board, but we need you to help us with new blog posts!

Best wishes
Angela

I’m all excited that I was chosen to speak at the European Registrars Conference in London, taking place November 17-19 (see full program here: http://www.erc2018.org/programme/programme/ ). I will represent the TECHNOSEUM (www.technoseum.de) and speak on “Collections management by the truckload” or how to get a grip on large collections. Time to share with you all the ups and downs of managing the thousands of objects that hit my colleagues and me when we accepted a large collection of advertising materials, a collection from a former radio museum and a collection of broadcasting equipment from our state’s broadcasting company. It will also be a great opportunity to meet old and new friends.

Hope to meet some of you in person there!

Angela

It’s been a hot summer in many regards. Temperatures were ridiculously high in Germany and while some places saw exceptional drought and wildfire, others saw heavy rain and thunderstorms. It’s nearly a metaphor for my working life. There were the usual ups and downs in collections management, aggravated by the problematic weather conditions. Then, there is one of my side jobs which has to do with work related legal issues and solving conflicts. This one required more of my time and ability to write than usual. Long story short, I remembered to practice what I preach: that good collections care always means taking good care of yourself in the first place.

Registrar Trek was one of the things that I put on hold. I stayed away from this highly work-related blog and social media activities in general and instead focused on improving my soldering skills (which are still my main obstacle in all things microcontroller), dabbling with the 3D-printer and taking baby steps into woodworking (if you are interested in learning how to fix things and become more comfortable with tools in general, definitely look at Leah Bolden’s excellent “How to” videos at See Jane Drill).

With the fall approaching things start to look a little less turbulent and I hope I will be able to fill the blog again with interesting things. Of course, all is easier if you help with it, so keep pictures, stories and articles coming to story@museumsprojekte.de

Best wishes
Angela

“After five years you can consider a project as grown-up.” This was more or less how the moderator at the conference of the documentation group of the Deutscher Museumsbund (German Museum Association) phrased it when I gave a talk about our project. In many regards, I think that’s right. But on the other hand, it makes me want to sing with Tom Waits (or with the Ramones, if you prefer that version): “I don’t wanna grow up!” I hope we will never lose the curiosity to try and learn new things and I hope we will never become so serious that there isn’t a place for a good laugh even in our most professional articles.

This year we covered a wide range of very recent aspects of our profession, from rapid response collecting to cataloging smartphone apps. In general, we expanded our range from the classical collection management topics to more aspects of museum documentation. This is a good thing as documentation is the foundation of everything we do. However, because we want to keep our blogging well-rounded, I’m planning to launch a series about “Registrar’s Tools”, where we talk about our favorite tools and toys. You are very welcome to contribute with texts, pictures and thoughts about the tools you like best.

As a project, this year I hope we can attract some new translators. Many who started with us five years ago have now taken up such demanding roles that they can’t contribute anymore. This doesn’t come as a surprise, because people who are willing to volunteer in a project about their profession show exactly the mindset and dedication that is sought after by museums. So, I do hope that we will find new volunteers that fill the blog with the missing translations.

And of course, I hope that many will find the time to sit down and write the story or that article about an aspect of our profession they always wanted to write about. As always, send them to story@museumsprojekte.de

Now, let’s start into this New Year 2018 and may it be a good one!

Angela

The most difficult season for the registrar comes to an end. All the end of year gifts wrapped up, all the loans returned or loan contracts renewed, all the candles replaced with LEDs (seriously, who ever thought mixing real – and usually dry – twigs of pine and fire is a great idea?), the last database entries updated. Time to raise our glasses.
We know the world “outside” is difficult, perhaps more difficult these days than it ever was during our lifetime. But there is also friendship and collaboration across borders, especially in our profession. That’s something to be grateful for. This year sat colleagues from all across Germany, but also from China and Egypt at our kitchen table in the storage and we could exchange thoughts and insights. Maybe the greatest gift is being able to listen and understand each other, even if there are language hurdles and cultural differences.

On behalf of the whole Registrar Trek Team:

Merry Christmas,
A few calm days off and a
Happy New Year 2018!

Angela

Whenever a member of the Registrar Trek Team Member is attending a conference or a similar event to spread the word about our blog project we usually post a “Registrar Trek goes… (Costa Rica, Helsinki, Milan)” message. Well, this time I am attending a conference that takes place at “my” museum, so I can stay where I am: The annual fall meeting of the documentation group of the Deutscher Museumsbund (German Museum Association) will take place October 16-18 at the TECHNOSEUM. I’m all exited to do a presentation on the blog and exchange thoughts with all the colleagues.

See the full conference time table here:
http://www.museumsbund.de/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/fg-dokumentation-herbst-2017-vorlaeufiges-programm-online.pdf

Best wishes
Angela

I can’t believe it’s 2017 already! Seems like yesterday that we celebrated the third birthday of our project.

2016 was a strange year after all. For me personally it was highly successful, but in the big picture, it was terrible. Terrorist attacks, wars, conflicts, mockeries of elections,… you name it, we could all have done without that. And then, in our own sector, we saw again budget cuts, museums closing, people poorly paid and people with high creativity and potential been let go. Again, we could have done without that.

So, is there any way to have a positive outlook into this new year?

Yes, there is.

We see that many museums and museum professionals work towards the goal of making museums safe spaces for all. We see more and more museum professionals speak up against things that go wrong in this sector, here, let me mention #MuseumWorkerSpeak as an example. And, we see more and more museum professionals finding the courage to speak up against things that go wrong in their communities and in politics. This gives me hope for the New Year.

Now, when we look at this project Registrar Trek, what does the future hold? My past predictions were all more or less off the mark, as all predictions have a tendency to be. But I do hope, that in the new year we will encourage more contributions in forms and articles and stories from around the world. Too be honest, there was a little bit too much “Angela Kipp” stuff on this blog recently. As much as I like my projects like the book and the logger (a new generation of them were installed just before Christmas for a serious test under real-life conditions), this was never the intention of the blog. So here is my wish for this our fourth birthday:

That many, many of you find the courage to sit down to write an article, an observation, a story or a thought for us.

Read you soon!

Angela

A short follow-up to our announcement in September:

Now all recordings of the “Getting a Grip on Collections Management” webinar series are available to listen to on the Connecting to Collections Care website, together with the slides and additional materials for download:

Webinar 1: Basic Condition Reporting

Deborah Rose Van Horn

Basic Condition Reporting

Managing Previously Unmanaged Collections: A Survival Guide for Messes Great and Small

Angela Kipp

Managing Previously Unmanaged Collections: A Survival Guide for Messes Great and Small

Webinar 3: There’s a Form for That: Documenting Your Collections

Beverly Balger Sutley

There’s a Form for That: Documenting Your Collections

Webinar 4: A Place for Everything and Everything in Its Place: Conducting (and Maintaining!) a Collection Inventory

Maureen McCormick

A Place for Everything and Everything in Its Place: Conducting (and Maintaining!) a Collection Inventory

And there are many, many more helpful and free resources to be discovered in the Connecting to Collections Care Archives: http://www.connectingtocollections.org/archives/