Archives for May 29, 2006

The Natural History Museum, London’s Antarctic Conservation Blog has been describing some interesting pieces of material culture.

Coop of Positive Ape Index is totally in love with some old tools. Really.

Mister Jalopy salivates over a Christie’s auction that includes a Laughing Drunkard Coin Operated Automaton–and he kindly provides photos. In an earlier post, he finds a childhood in a jar.

Continuing its “Cool Things” series of podcasts, the Kansas Museum of History has published a new episode, this one on a leg brace for a woman who had been afflicted with polio as a child.

In the series “Found Objects,” I’ll be sharing sites and blog posts that may be of interest to museum professionals.

The folks at Ideum have begun a central clearinghouse for museum blogs, MuseumBlogs.org. Be sure to check out the other museum blogs listed there, some of which you may have already discovered through the blogroll here on Museum Blogging. And if you haven’t yet read it, check out Ideum’s survey of museum blogs and community sites.

Glenda Sims provides a nice summary of the Museums and the Web conference. I’m grateful that the post drew my attention to Curating the City: Wilshire Blvd; what a wonderful site! Sims also blogged about her experiences at a Digital Storytelling Bootcamp for Museums.

The Canadian Heritage Information Network recently unveiled the Knowledge Exchange, “an online space for museum professionals and volunteers, promoting community engagement through the use of relevant technologies.” Be sure to check it out.

Blogging Pedagogy considers “digital curation” in the context of a post about mobile blogging.

Live from LRMA points us to a list of fictional works that feature art conservators or restorers and Encyclopedia Smithsonian’s guide and reference list on the appraisal of objects.

Paul Marty of Musematic considers the state of museum research. An excerpt:

as more museum professionals work to integrate media and technology into their museums, it will become even more important that regularized data benchmarks be established to allow for comparisons between projects and to help others avoid re-inventing the wheel each time a new project is started.

Brent Gustafson of the Walker Art Center shows us how to hack the iPod operating system to make it useful for audio tours.

Nina Puurunen of Museoblogi considers censorship in museums and how to best write the history of museums, a subject near and dear to my heart.

Found History considers the utility of Yahoo’s Taglines as an historical resource.