Behind the Scenes at the Oxford University Museums Oxford University

Theodore Koterwas, Mobile Development Team Lead, IT Services, gives a short talk for Oxford University Museums Staff Conference Based in IT Services, Ted and the Mobile Development Team have worked with the museums on half a dozen apps and mobile resources for the visiting public. Ted shares some of the innovative products developed, and share lessons learned.

Beth Asbury, Assistant to the Director and Administration Team, Pitt Rivers Museum, gives a short talk for Oxford University Museums Staff Conference. Beth shares an Oxford University Museums Partnership Innovation Fund project to create a printed trail across the collections providing new perspectives on some of their objects written by volunteers from Oxford’s LGBTQ+ community. This is a response to a lecture by Professor Richard Parkinson of the Oriental Institute calling for more explicit, not implicit, representations of the LGBTQ+ experience in all museums.

Daniel Bone, Deputy Head of Conservation, Ashmolean Museum, gives a short talk for Oxford University Museums Staff Conference. Daniel outlines the work of a recent Oxford University Museums Partnership Innovation Fund project setting up vibration monitoring in showcases at the Ashmolean. The project is in collaboration with Professor Manolis Chatzis, Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford.

Stephen Barker, Oxfordshire County Council Museums Service, gives a short talk for Oxford University Museums Staff Conference. For the current Oxford University Museums Partnership funded 'Oxfordshire in 50 Objects' exhibition produced by Oxfordshire Museums Services, community partners were asked to choose the artefacts. This presentation highlights two chosen artefacts, why they were chosen and how visitors interact with them.

Mark Carnall, Collections Manager (Life Collections), Museum of Natural History gives a short talk for the Oxford University Museums Staff Conference. Mark shares his experiences from his first year working in the museum managing the zoology collections, all the teaching, research and other stuff – including the whacky enquiries! Mark shares the surprises and the rewards he’s encountered since joining the Oxford team.

Helen Fountain, Reminiscence Officer, Oxford University Museums and Kate Hamblin, Senior Research Fellow, University of Oxford Institute for Population Ageing give a short talk for the Oxford University Museums Staff Conference. In 2015 the University of Oxford Institute for Population Ageing made a successful application to the Fell Fund to explore the impact of the Museum of Oxford’s Memory Lane on site reminiscence group on its participants’ wellbeing. This short talk covers the collaborative process from early discussions, developing a seminar series, the research process and the final research findings which have been published in a report.