I have never been able to discover the joy of fossil invertebrates but this has been Liz Hide's idea of fun for, well, as long as she can remember.
Professionally, though, she has been exploring the earth's crust and bringing it alive to visitors since the 1980s, having worked mainly in Cambridge with a brief stint in Edinburgh. So it is a bit of a surprise to learn that she has given all this up for a largely administrative role.
She has been eight months in the job as the museum development officer (MDO) for the University of Cambridge and her brief is to develop shared projects across six of the university museums: the University Museum of Zoology (where her office is); the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences; the Whipple Museum of the History of Science; the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology; the Museum of Classical Archaeology and the Scott Polar Research Institute.
Four of the museums have designated collections and the contemporary art gallery Kettle's Yard has recently been added to her portfolio.
As this is a brand new post for Cambridge, Hide says she didn't know what the job involved when she applied and that a lot of the fine detail is still being worked out. So what attracted her to the role?
She had been putting the finishing touches to the redevelopment of galleries at the Sedgwick Museum where she had worked as the project manager for five years (the final phase was completed this March) when she saw the job advertised. 'I'd seen that there was this enormous potential to work with other museums and I saw this job and thought "this might be it", and it absolutely is, and more,' she says.
Funded by the regional hub and the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council East of England, as well as money from each of the museums, I wonder if Hide is seen by the museums as a fairy godmother figure, come to fundraise and deliver financially for these small under-resourced museums.
Hide says one of her first tasks when she arrived was to submit two grant applications to the Designation Challenge Fund. Both were successful and meant the first joint initiative could get under way.
The Museum of Zoology and the Sedgwick both have Darwin material in their collections and will mount two separate and permanent exhibitions to coincide with the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth in 2009 (the exhibitions should be completed in 2008). A joint project officer is to be appointed.
Without doubt Hide knows she has to show her value to the university museums in Cambridge: 'There is an element of having to prove this is a useful job,' she says. 'There isn't much room for complacency.' And she acknowledges that that usefulness is likely to be assessed in terms of the amount of money she brings into the region.
But she also hopes that the introduction of other initiatives will be considered a success. On the request of the museums, Hide organised disability awareness training. The chance to network with colleagues in other university museums was particularly welcome. Hide says this cooperation is something she wants to develop: 'I want to make museums feel that they are working together at all levels.'
She says she does not expect museums to approach her on everything they work on. She sees herself as a sounding board for ideas but wants museums to run with ideas they have. Hide has some hub cash for increasing opening hours and outreach events for which the university museums have to bid. She has seen the effect that opening for longer on Saturday has had on the Sedgwick, with visitor figures up by a third on that day.
At the Sedgwick, university research students have been trained to deliver talks to the general public on their recent research. 'Here's some real Cambridge boffins who are young and exciting,' says Hide.
'I like that behind-the-scenes contact between the public and the academic world. We can nurture young research talent and give them exposure, and at the same time demystify science and raise aspirations among a family audience.'
She says this is good practice and she hopes the hub money will support the rolling out of the programme. Hide believes this is also a great way of balancing the question of what and whom university museums are for. Are they for teaching, research or the public?
In the 1990s Hide undertook a PhD in earth sciences and zoology at Cambridge after a brief stint as a geological report writer and four years teaching at the Open University. She then got her first museum job as an exhibition coordinator at the Sedgwick.
After a year she hiked up to the National Museums of Scotland in Edinburgh where she was the curator of fossil invertebrates and plants. Having participated on the development of the new Museum of Scotland she returned to the Sedgwick to lead the redevelopment project.
She embraced Edinburgh for its mountains, and jokes that the Fens is the worst place she could be as a geologist. But it is her commitment to Cambridgeshire, she says, that makes it likely that she will get results as the university's MDO. She says she understands the pressures that the museums face.
One issue she says is how some in the museum world see their sister institutions. 'There is a misconception that university museums are really well funded. People look at the Fitz [the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge] with a lot of staff and there is the assumption that the smaller university museums in Cambridge are the same.'
Hide's time in the region has meant she has struck up a good working relationship with the Fitzwilliam. And she recognises that the smaller museums can benefit from the expertise of the Fitzwilliam and the university in areas such as press and marketing. But she concludes: 'I do see my colleagues [in the small university museums] coping admirably with an enormous workload on no budget.'
She cites archives as one area that is causing concern. They are growing and Hide says the skills to deal with them within the museums are patchy. The regional agency is addressing this with training for staff this year but in addition Hide hopes the university will find funding to pull archives together. There is also a backlog of collection documentation that she hopes hub funds will help put right.
But perhaps the biggest hurdle is the image that university museums have in the eyes of the general public. 'I still feel that museums are up against the perception from visitors that these are spaces where they are not welcome. However good the signage is and however welcoming, you are coming onto a site that is a campus and you may or may not feel welcome.' She adds that even when you are through the museum doors you still may not feel welcome.
When I arrived to meet Hide it took me about 15 minutes to find the Museum of Zoology after misdirection by my taxi driver. He dropped me at the Sedgwick, but there was no one about to ask for information, the museum shop was closed and there were only two visitors.
I made my way downstairs to the offices but couldn't see how to get in. A helpful student pointed out a lever above the handle that releases the door. I went in and the reception area was hidden around a corner. The receptionist directed me some 50 yards up the road.
She pointed to the way out (which was not the way I came in), and although she clearly knew there was a door there, to my eyes it was panelling without an exit. The helpful student popped up again and showed me the hidden door. This was obviously not the sort of welcome Hide has in mind.
Hide took up her job amid consternation about the loss of the Cambridgeshire MDO whose post was made redundant when the county council made cuts. She says the museums in Cambridgeshire were 'gutted' when John Goldsmith left and though university museums weren't part of his remit he was supportive.
She hopes the council will think again and reintroduce the post (there is currently a part-time MDO for Cambridgeshire museums). Hide's post is funded up until 2007/08 but she is optimistic that there will be strong evidence that the job should continue beyond that.
Hide has embraced her new role and is carrying it out with fervour. She is extremely affable and clearly a people person and you can see her excelling as a facilitator - the glue for a bit of joined-up thinking.
But she has to concede: 'It is in my mind that I don't deal directly with collections and I don't deal much with visitors.' And as quickly as the words are out she turns to the opportunity she now has to learn about diverse collections. She says she wants to and should know the top ten objects in each of the museums. 'I'm on a bit of a steep learning curve with the classical archaeology,' she admits.
But I get the feeling that if Hide had her way she would be curating or directing the Sedgwick. Don't be surprised if that's where she ends up.
Professionally, though, she has been exploring the earth's crust and bringing it alive to visitors since the 1980s, having worked mainly in Cambridge with a brief stint in Edinburgh. So it is a bit of a surprise to learn that she has given all this up for a largely administrative role.
She has been eight months in the job as the museum development officer (MDO) for the University of Cambridge and her brief is to develop shared projects across six of the university museums: the University Museum of Zoology (where her office is); the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences; the Whipple Museum of the History of Science; the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology; the Museum of Classical Archaeology and the Scott Polar Research Institute.
Four of the museums have designated collections and the contemporary art gallery Kettle's Yard has recently been added to her portfolio.
As this is a brand new post for Cambridge, Hide says she didn't know what the job involved when she applied and that a lot of the fine detail is still being worked out. So what attracted her to the role?
She had been putting the finishing touches to the redevelopment of galleries at the Sedgwick Museum where she had worked as the project manager for five years (the final phase was completed this March) when she saw the job advertised. 'I'd seen that there was this enormous potential to work with other museums and I saw this job and thought "this might be it", and it absolutely is, and more,' she says.
Funded by the regional hub and the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council East of England, as well as money from each of the museums, I wonder if Hide is seen by the museums as a fairy godmother figure, come to fundraise and deliver financially for these small under-resourced museums.
Hide says one of her first tasks when she arrived was to submit two grant applications to the Designation Challenge Fund. Both were successful and meant the first joint initiative could get under way.
The Museum of Zoology and the Sedgwick both have Darwin material in their collections and will mount two separate and permanent exhibitions to coincide with the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth in 2009 (the exhibitions should be completed in 2008). A joint project officer is to be appointed.
Without doubt Hide knows she has to show her value to the university museums in Cambridge: 'There is an element of having to prove this is a useful job,' she says. 'There isn't much room for complacency.' And she acknowledges that that usefulness is likely to be assessed in terms of the amount of money she brings into the region.
But she also hopes that the introduction of other initiatives will be considered a success. On the request of the museums, Hide organised disability awareness training. The chance to network with colleagues in other university museums was particularly welcome. Hide says this cooperation is something she wants to develop: 'I want to make museums feel that they are working together at all levels.'
She says she does not expect museums to approach her on everything they work on. She sees herself as a sounding board for ideas but wants museums to run with ideas they have. Hide has some hub cash for increasing opening hours and outreach events for which the university museums have to bid. She has seen the effect that opening for longer on Saturday has had on the Sedgwick, with visitor figures up by a third on that day.
At the Sedgwick, university research students have been trained to deliver talks to the general public on their recent research. 'Here's some real Cambridge boffins who are young and exciting,' says Hide.
'I like that behind-the-scenes contact between the public and the academic world. We can nurture young research talent and give them exposure, and at the same time demystify science and raise aspirations among a family audience.'
She says this is good practice and she hopes the hub money will support the rolling out of the programme. Hide believes this is also a great way of balancing the question of what and whom university museums are for. Are they for teaching, research or the public?
In the 1990s Hide undertook a PhD in earth sciences and zoology at Cambridge after a brief stint as a geological report writer and four years teaching at the Open University. She then got her first museum job as an exhibition coordinator at the Sedgwick.
After a year she hiked up to the National Museums of Scotland in Edinburgh where she was the curator of fossil invertebrates and plants. Having participated on the development of the new Museum of Scotland she returned to the Sedgwick to lead the redevelopment project.
She embraced Edinburgh for its mountains, and jokes that the Fens is the worst place she could be as a geologist. But it is her commitment to Cambridgeshire, she says, that makes it likely that she will get results as the university's MDO. She says she understands the pressures that the museums face.
One issue she says is how some in the museum world see their sister institutions. 'There is a misconception that university museums are really well funded. People look at the Fitz [the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge] with a lot of staff and there is the assumption that the smaller university museums in Cambridge are the same.'
Hide's time in the region has meant she has struck up a good working relationship with the Fitzwilliam. And she recognises that the smaller museums can benefit from the expertise of the Fitzwilliam and the university in areas such as press and marketing. But she concludes: 'I do see my colleagues [in the small university museums] coping admirably with an enormous workload on no budget.'
She cites archives as one area that is causing concern. They are growing and Hide says the skills to deal with them within the museums are patchy. The regional agency is addressing this with training for staff this year but in addition Hide hopes the university will find funding to pull archives together. There is also a backlog of collection documentation that she hopes hub funds will help put right.
But perhaps the biggest hurdle is the image that university museums have in the eyes of the general public. 'I still feel that museums are up against the perception from visitors that these are spaces where they are not welcome. However good the signage is and however welcoming, you are coming onto a site that is a campus and you may or may not feel welcome.' She adds that even when you are through the museum doors you still may not feel welcome.
When I arrived to meet Hide it took me about 15 minutes to find the Museum of Zoology after misdirection by my taxi driver. He dropped me at the Sedgwick, but there was no one about to ask for information, the museum shop was closed and there were only two visitors.
I made my way downstairs to the offices but couldn't see how to get in. A helpful student pointed out a lever above the handle that releases the door. I went in and the reception area was hidden around a corner. The receptionist directed me some 50 yards up the road.
She pointed to the way out (which was not the way I came in), and although she clearly knew there was a door there, to my eyes it was panelling without an exit. The helpful student popped up again and showed me the hidden door. This was obviously not the sort of welcome Hide has in mind.
Hide took up her job amid consternation about the loss of the Cambridgeshire MDO whose post was made redundant when the county council made cuts. She says the museums in Cambridgeshire were 'gutted' when John Goldsmith left and though university museums weren't part of his remit he was supportive.
She hopes the council will think again and reintroduce the post (there is currently a part-time MDO for Cambridgeshire museums). Hide's post is funded up until 2007/08 but she is optimistic that there will be strong evidence that the job should continue beyond that.
Hide has embraced her new role and is carrying it out with fervour. She is extremely affable and clearly a people person and you can see her excelling as a facilitator - the glue for a bit of joined-up thinking.
But she has to concede: 'It is in my mind that I don't deal directly with collections and I don't deal much with visitors.' And as quickly as the words are out she turns to the opportunity she now has to learn about diverse collections. She says she wants to and should know the top ten objects in each of the museums. 'I'm on a bit of a steep learning curve with the classical archaeology,' she admits.
But I get the feeling that if Hide had her way she would be curating or directing the Sedgwick. Don't be surprised if that's where she ends up.
