By Jackie Hoff, Science Museum of Minnesota

“Hi, Jackie. This is Catherine. Is it too early to call?"

“No, not at all. What’s up?”

She tells me that her goat died the night before and she’s wondering if the museum could use it. I say I’ll call her later in the day. I’m in the museum by 9 a.m. and get going by checking my phone messages and e-mail, then head to my first meeting.

Back at my desk, I answer some phone messages. A few are donation offers (dinosaur bones, ethnographic material, biological specimens or maybe a rock that looks like Jesus), a possible loan, a school looking for a speaker and someone requesting object identification for a collection of Hmong clothing.

After another meeting, I hook up with a new intern and set her up with a badge and a space to work on her first project, sorting out an old accession that was numbered in lots instead of individual catalog numbers. Once she’s settled, I find my biologist in his lab and ask about the goat. He tells me he would be happy to add the bones to our osteology collection or possibly feature the specimen in an exhibition. I call Catherine to let her know I’ll be out tomorrow morning to pick it up, and head offsite to meet a colleague for lunch and work chat.

In the afternoon I get to work on some loan paperwork, call a few more people to discuss ongoing projects—such as an inventory of a new gem and mineral collection--and return still more of my morning messages. I check my e-mail and spend a few minutes following a thread about digital images and copyright on the Registrars Committee list-serv.

I check in on my intern and then head to yet another meeting. This one makes me smile. We talk about all the cool traveling exhibitions that we will be working on in the next few years. I take this information to our conservation folks, discuss what we will need to do and put it on the schedule.

Our paleontologist stops in to ask if I remember the accession number for an object that he lent out and where he okayed it to go.

I finish up with my intern and settle down with one of the many projects I have going on. These include current and future exhibitions, ongoing collaborations with other museums and daily collections care. We also are in the middle of a traveling exhibition installation, so I am changing databases. We are doing condition reports on a small exhibit, as well as taking images and collecting detailed information on a large textile project. And I am working with our teacher resource center on material that is suitable for kids.

I run home and change for an evening donor event at the event, during which I give a tour and talk about collections stewardship. I then head home for good and plan to pick up the goat in the morning.

Add some more tours of our paleontology, biology, geology, archaeology and ethnology collections and you have my Day in the Life—some days more and some days less, but all are full of interesting and often challenging tasks. Gotta love working in museums!