Hands On: Practising Emergency Response

Hands On: Practising Emergency Response

Posted on by Collections & Conservation
Posted on: Friday July 29, 2011

The 37th annual Canadian Association for Conservation conference was held in Winnipeg in May 2010. Conservator Lisa May attended a two-day pre-conference workshop entitled “Advanced Issues in Emergency Preparedness and Response”. As part of this workshop, Jane Dalley from Heritage Conservation Service (Winnipeg, MB), instructed a hands-on component. Workshop participants experienced how to handle, stabilize and clean water damaged items.

A row of people suiting up in white protective clothing and face masks.

Participants wear protective clothing. In an emergency scenario, there could be dust, mould, and water

A variety of objects including a rug, painting, notebooks, cassette tapes, floppy dusks, and more piled on the floor.

A variety of objects made of different materials had to be rescued.

Four people wearing white protective clothing sorting various artifacts into trays and boxes.

The different materials are triaged and separated according to how they will be treated.

A series of painting an photographs laid out on paper towels on the floor. In the background the legs of four people wearing protective clothing can be seen.

In one room, wet objects are laid to dry on paper towels and clear polyethylene.

A small tapestry and two prints laid out on a cotton sheet.

In another space, things are drying on a cotton sheet. Notice dye has run on the print.

Objects like CDs, CD cases, floppy disks, and film slides laid on a small table made from pipe and netting.

Still more objects are laid out on a homemade table made from plumbing pipe.

A wet notebook with paper towels inserted between each page to aid in drying.

Paper towels are placed between pages to speed drying.

An individual wearing white protective clothing, blue rubber gloves, and a white face mask kneels on the ground next to a shop vac and an old and worn straw hat.

A shop vac is useful in a flood or leak.

This was just one part of the workshop. Lectures and discussion to share experiences and questions were an invaluable aspect, but hands-on practice opportunities are rarer. Thanks go to the Canadian Conservation Institute, helped by local organizer Ala Rekrut from the Archives of Manitoba for presenting this professional development opportunity.

Museum Stories: Collections & Conservation

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Confessions of a Genuine Science Geek

Posted on by Diana Bizecki Robson
Posted on: Thursday July 7, 2011

For the last several weeks I have been recording the pollinators of wild flowers in Birds Hill Provincial Park. One rather windy and uneventful day I was able to reflect on my chosen profession and was forced to conclude that I am a science geek. I remembered an old episode of the Simpsons where Bart discovers a comet. While searching the heavens with Bart, Principal Seymour Skinner says, “There’s nothing more exciting than science! You get all the fun of sitting still, being quiet, writing down numbers, paying attention – science has it all!” That pretty much describes what I’ve been doing for the last seven years: sitting quietly, waiting for an insect to land on a flower, and writing down the number of flowers she/he visits. In the winter I identify plants and insects, study the data I collected, make graphs, run statistical analyses, and write scientific papers. The funny part is that I really do find it exciting. It’s fun to find out if the patterns you surmised while in the field were real or indistinguishable from nature’s background noise. Plus, there’s nothing more thrilling than correctly identifying a mysterious species of sedge! Hence my revelation and this confession.

A small, six-petaled purple flower with a yellow centre.

I love staring at the delicate Blue-eyed grass flowers!

View looking out over a prairie grassland, with a single fir tree in the mid ground, and a tree line in the distance.

My summertime office.

I know that to some (probably all those extroverted people out there) my job sounds dull and tedious (a bit like watching paint dry, perhaps).  But for an introvert like me, who is energized by solitude, it’s actually the perfect job.  Being in a crowded, noisy environment with lots of people around would just drain me.

Perhaps I’m being a little too self depracating though.  Having a job where you’re constantly stuck indoors on beautiful summer days isn’t that great either.  I get to watch all sorts of wildlife while I do my work, smell fragrant wildflowers and feel the wind on my face.  Plus I don’t need to take any vitamin D tablets (skin cancer’s a possibility though).  The fact of the matter is some people pay money to do what I get paid to do: observing and photographing wildlife.  I can’t imagine too many people paying money to be a lawyer or a stockbroker for a day.

 

Image: One of the facinating creatures I share my work space with: a crab spider.

I also take solace in the fact that the specimens and data I collect will probably be studied long after I’m dead.  Not everyone can say that about their life’s work.  So even though I am a science geek, I don’t mind at all.

Dr. Diana Bizecki Robson

Dr. Diana Bizecki Robson

Curator of Botany

Dr. Bizecki Robson obtained a Master’s Degree in Plant Ecology at the University of Saskatchewan studying rare plants of the mixed grass prairies. After working as an environmental consultant and sessional lecturer…
Meet Dr. Bizecki Robson

Museum Stories: Botany

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