It's four years since I first started posting these vents, observations, rambles and giggles online, and I'm sort of surprised it's still going. I enjoy doing it, and thanks to you all for the likes, shares and comments, here, on Facebook, and most recently on Tumblr.

See where it all began here.

This ties in with a few things, and makes a bit of sense, but may lead to a different set of issues for attendants to manage, such as people doing the selfie thing in obtrusive or dangerous ways etc. By and large, I'm divided in opinion, as is pretty much all of the sector. 

"People won't engage properly with the venue and displays, or be respectful in the spaces" 
vs 
"They're gonna do it anyway, so build it in as a positive feature to enhance the experience."

31 cabinets and their contents relocated over a day and a half, by 5 staff.

Each cabinet required:
2x journeys up and down stairs to move the doors.
1x journey up and down stairs to move the shelves.
2x journeys in the lift to move the contents.
1x journey in the lift to move the cabinet.

Plus… 4 circular cabinets requiring 1x lift and 1x stairs journey each, roughly 12x stair journeys for assorted small displays, lectern, seating….

And three diorama cabinets wholly dismantled, relocated and rebuilt.

And we broke nothing.

I started doing the maths for how many times I'd been up and down the stairs over those two days. And had to stop as it was making me tired

You may not know, but Attendants View is also on Tumblr (it seemed a strange thing at first, but a lot of museums and galleries use it in a very creative way) One of the peeps I follow posted such a thought provoking little commentary, I wanted to share it here too, for the benefit of those without Tumblr.

In response to this article: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/08/19/341651494/ferguson-teachers-use-day-off-as-opportunity-for-a-civics-lesson

School has been canceled for the week in Ferguson, Mo., as civil unrest continues. While the students are out of the classroom, teachers are helping to clean up the streets.

museums-etc wrote: http://museums-etc.tumblr.com/post/95247683255/ferguson-teachers-use-day-off-as-opportunity-for-a

"I’ve been thinking lately about the events in Ferguson and the apparent lack of response from St. Louis museums. (People from the St. Louis suburbs generally think of themselves as being from STL in general, more so than whatever smaller official town they live in (Ferguson, Florissant, etc.) and the problems that Ferguson is facing are problems that plague all of St. Louis.)

Earlier today I reblogged that picture of the signs from the Ferguson library offering itself as a place of respite and consolation. The library is serving and supporting its community.

In grad school, we talked endlessly about how museums need to serve and support their communities. And museums seem to want to be integral members of their communities. But I haven’t really seen anything meaningful from local museums. Where are the community forums? Where is the historical context for the city’s race problems? Is nobody taking oral histories? 

Ferguson teachers are trying to provide support and help their kids make sense of these events. Are their local arts and culture institutions doing anything to help?

If museums want to claim they care so much about their communities, they need to act like it a little more."

What you really want in a foreign language phrase book are those useful day to day phrases, such as "What the deuyll doest thou here" and "It is properte of a woman to use scoldynge." 

The wonderful Bodleian Library had just digitised a 16th century English to Latin guide, and it's a gem to see the phrases "needed" in daily life. 

See the folio here: http://viewer.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/icv/page.php?book=auct._2q_5.9

and more priceless 16th C English phrases here: http://the-toast.net/2014/08/15/16th-century-english-to-latin-textbook/