Museums Lives: Oral history and the Natural History Museum

香港自然历史博物馆是世界一流的博物馆，藏有七千万个标本，是一个卓越的国际科学研究中心，在向公众介绍自然世界方面有着悠久的传统。它的工作人员对博物馆的历史、人员配备、收藏发展、方法和展览都有个人的了解，这些都是重要的文化资源，但没有持续的计划来捕捉这些记忆。“博物馆生活”旨在改变这一现状，为学术、教育和展览创造一个高质量的多媒体资源，丰富历史记录，为馆藏增添新的维度，吸引新的观众。“博物馆生活”源于美国人权协会资助的“新视角”项目，在此过程中，NHM管理层对博物馆工作人员离职造成的知识流失表示担忧。例如，未来5年将有24名专业工作人员退休，他们的工作经验为775年。虽然他们的出版物集中在其专业领域的知识，但他们的记忆在科学史、博物馆实践、社会学、管理学、政治学、人类学、地理学和教育等学科中都有价值。金斯顿大学通过艺术与社会科学学院（FASS）及其合作伙伴健康与社会关怀科学学院（FHSCS），拥有专门的技能来解决这一迫切需求，通过以最大化博物馆、公众和学术界价值的方式获取这些信息。KTF是传递这些技能的理想手段。Kingston FASS和FHSCS与博物馆一起，提出了一个为期三年的KTF计划，根据目前的最佳做法，根据博物馆的需要，创建一个口述历史项目。它将利用两个学院的知识，以确保产出满足广泛利益相关者的需求。长期目标是将该计划嵌入博物馆的工作中，以便在这些方面保存知识成为常规。志愿者口述历史学家也将接受培训，工作人员将在记录自己的记忆方面得到帮助，该项目将通过主题为“证人研讨会”的方式刺激失落知识的恢复。核心项目将创建与50个博物馆工作人员采访主题相关的记录。这个数字反映了这些科目的特殊经验、他们知识的价值和多媒体输出的质量。例如，一个馆长的传记将被研究，他或她将在镜头前被详细采访，产生一个可搜索的档案记录和文字记录。从这些材料主题将被确定为适合教育和展览使用的制作标准的短片-通常与策展人具有特殊知识的标本一起拍摄。这些影片将永久与博物馆数码资料库的标本相连，也可与公开展览的标本相连使用。这些口述历史资料经编辑后可在博物馆网页上阅览，并可用于博物馆的公开展览和学习计划。通过为迄今主要作为分类对象记录的人工制品增加新的人类和文化维度，这可能是吸引新受众的有力工具。这些材料将提供给从事与该系列相关项目的中学生和大学生，以及艺术家、电影制作人、广播公司、作家和诗人，他们可以从这些故事中获得灵感。美国国家生活故事收藏馆（National Life Story Collection）以这种方式被广泛地“挖掘”，而哥伦比亚大学口述历史办公室（Columbia Oral History office）则为1000多本书奠定了基础。

The Natural History Museum is a world-class repository of 70 million specimens and an international centre of excellence in scientific study with a rich tradition of informing the public about the natural world. Its staff have personal knowledge of the Museum's history, staffing, collection development, methodologies and exhibitions which constitute an important cultural resource, yet there is no sustained programme to capture these memories. Museum Lives aims to rectify this and to create a high-quality multimedia resource for scholarship, education and exhibitions that will enrich the historical record and add new dimensions to the collections which will attract fresh audiences. Museum Lives grows out of the AHRC-funded New Perspectives project, in the course of which the NHM management has expressed concern at the loss of knowledge as Museum staff move on. Over the next five years, for example, 24 specialist staff will retire, representing 775 years of experience. While their publications concentrate on advancing knowledge in their specialist fields, their memories have value in disciplines such as science history, museum practice, sociology, management, politics, anthropology, geography and education. Kingston University, through the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) and its partner the Faculty of Health and Social Care Sciences (FHSCS), has specialised skills to address this urgent need by capturing this information in ways that will maximise its value for the Museum, its public and the academic community. A KTF is the ideal means of transferring these skills. Kingston FASS and the FHSCS, together with the Museum, propose a three-year KTF to create an oral history programme based on best current practice and tailored to the Museum's needs. It will draw on knowledge in the two faculties to ensure the outputs meet the needs of a broad range of stakeholders. The long-term aim is to embed the programme in the Museum's work so that preservation of knowledge on these lines becomes routine. Volunteer oral historians will also be trained, staff will receive help in recording their own memories and the project will stimulate the recovery of lost knowledge through themed 'witness seminars'. The core project will create records relating to 50 interview subjects from across the Museum staff. This number reflects the exceptional experience of the subjects, the value of their knowledge and the quality of the multimedia outputs. For example, a curator's biography will be researched and he or she will be interviewed at length on camera, generating a searchable archive record and transcript. From this material themes will be identified for short films made to production standards suitable for educational and exhibition use -- often shot alongside specimens of which the curator has particular knowledge. Such films will be permanently linked to the specimens in the Museum's digital database and may also be used in connection with the specimens in public exhibition.The oral history resource will be available in edited form for public viewing on the Museum website and will be designed to be capable of use in the Museum's public exhibitions and learning programmes. By adding a new human and cultural dimension to artefacts hitherto recorded primarily as taxonomic objects, this could be a powerful tool in engaging new audiences. The material will be available to school and college students working on projects related to the collection, and to artists, filmmakers, broadcasters, writers and poets who can use these stories as inspiration. The National Life Story Collection has been extensively 'mined' in this way, while the Columbia Oral History office has formed the basis for more than 1,000 books.