Hiatus!

   Well, if you've been following our department blog you may have noticed we haven't posted anything for the last couple of weeks. We started out strong...but like a caterpillar munches on leaves and grows rapidly before taking a break with metamorphosis, we are in a quiet stasis mode before our next big change. The reasons? Lots!
   A.) We just closed the Exhibit Bugs Outside of the Box yesterday, which was one of the most successful exhibits we've had at the museum. The Opening was a great success in particular, thanks to all of the hard work of our volunteers, staff, and friends. It was a great run!

   B.) We've been really cranking along on cataloging our collection and accessions, including new donations of slides of Chironomidae flies thanks to Jan Hoover.

Chironomidae fly. Image from Wikipedia.com

A few weeks ago we also got a donation of over 2,000 or so slides of various aquatic insects and larvae from Lake Texoma as part of a survey by Dr. Gary Schnell, which need to be cataloged and accessioned. Its exciting to get all of this data, but cataloging the information is not the most exciting thing to write about. We did hit some important milestones, however. Thanks to Tamaki, Laura, and Jaime's help we've cataloged over 2,819 species of beetles in our collection...a great start for diversity represented for how small our collection is.
   C.) Our mollusk collection has moved! We had to move at least 12 cabinets to a new space so that we could incorporate the Mather shell accession into our collection. We keep growing! Having four women, three of which are under 5-5", move a hundred or so 15lb steel drawers filled with shell specimens is quite a task. Our team is a tough one!
   D.) 'Tis the season for...grant writing. The Sam Noble Museum has been very generous with our department, especially allowing us to expand our space by moving the mollusk collection. However, like most museums, major upgrades to collections and departments require outside funding to help cover the costs of revamping efforts. Our collection needs a major revamp with space and cabinets to keep pace with the accessions and quality standards we're facing, so we're working hard on writing grants this summer to see if we can make those changes possible.
      So, this summer we'll be a bit more sporadic with our updates as we write and catalog away, but don't worry, the next big thing for our department will on its way soon enough!