Echinoderm Project 2023 - Week 3

 Emus running everywhere! Well, not everywhere, just on the computer.

That's because this week we’ve started digitally cataloging the echinoderm fossils in earnest, using a program called Electronic Museum, or EMu for short. The cataloging process ties together all of our previous work up to this point, as we attach our new specimen photographs and type out the information from the old specimen labels. (Not all labels are created equally, as it turns out– I’m looking at you, Corroded Paper-scrap-affixed-to-rock.)

The bane of my existence. I dare you to try and decipher it.

We got a sneak peek into what the future holds for our echinoderms early this week, when we took a trip to the type specimen room. First, we paid pilgrimage to the dusty hole in the wall where our echinoderms used to stay. Needless to say, they were in deep need of the attention we’ve been giving them. 

The old crib. So dusty.

In the type room, the situation was much better. A filing cabinet at the front of the room neatly holds scientific papers. Each paper references physical specimens from the museum collection and notes their location in the ordered stacks of cabinets and drawers which occupy most of the rest of the room. 

The model crib. So organized!

It's all digitized as well! An ancient Mac sits on a desk, where pdfs of the papers and jpegs of the specimens are all cataloged online. The easy and flexible organization ensures any visiting researcher will spend less time looking for what they need and more time getting their work done. Our work cleaning and digitally cataloging the echinoderm fossils brings them one step closer to a storage situation like this one.

A shiny new hallway in the museum...

Followed by a manually operated elevator with wooden doors.

Something else that put our work into perspective was our tour of the Exhibition Department of the museum. So much goes on behind the scenes before an exhibit is ready to be presented to the public, from brainstorming ideas, to modeling the exhibit space, to building a gigantic metal frame and carving a life-size prehistoric giant from polyurethane foam. 

A very professional artistic rendering of the unnamed prehistoric giant.

A good exhibit can’t just have a good topic, it needs to be presented in an informative and compelling way, for all audiences. A documentary in that corner for the parents, an interactive display over there for the kids. And the aforementioned polyurethane beast, you can’t forget that. 

My personal favorite step of crafting an exhibition: modeling it in a mini diorama (pic unrelated)

Displaying selections from the museum’s fossil collection is often an important piece of this curatorial puzzle. Thus, it’s important that the collection be organized so that the creative team in the Exhibition Department can find exactly what they’re looking for and build the best exhibit they can. Cleaning, databasing, and rehousing our echinoderms is important not only for academic research, but for public education as well.

With the value of our labor reaffirmed, we sent off the week with a fro-yo treat, proud of all the progress that we’ve made, and excited for the fun and successes yet to come.