So here I am finally writing about a new project!

Today sees the start of our Natural Science Volunteers project that will run every summer for the next three years. Our aim is to improve the care of the Natural Science Collection, stored in the Museum Collections Centre (MCC) here in Birmingham. There are literally thousands of objects in this collection, including birds, mammals, insects, botany and reptiles. Information about many of the objects can be found on the Natural World website. This summer we will be focusing on the mammals and birds with our three brave volunteers!

Sarah, Laura and Lukas our fearless Natural Science Volunteers

Between them they have lots of skills and experience that make them perfect for the project. Lukas even has a Scientific Illustration Blog that is well worth a look as is Laura’s ‘A Brummies Guide to Birmingham’ (though less ‘on topic’!).

So what will our volunteers be doing? Well their main task is to improve the documentation of the animal specimens, which means taking a look at them and making sure all the information we have about them is correct. With such a massive collection, this is not an easy task! They will also be taking lots of photographs and checking that all the animals are in the right place, ready for a time when they may go back out on display. We are really excited about the project and the improvements it will make to the collection. As always all their work will be documented here so watch this space!

Documentation Coordinator Katie showing the volunteers the paper records (VERY hard to read!)