Videos of Dr. John Hilliard

As of yesterday all the video clips have been posted to www.YouTube.com. Search Dr. John Hilliard and you can look through each of the questions that were asked. The sound quality is only OK but this will change soon. Above is a picture of Dr. Hilliard in the early 1960's.


Enjoy

Accepting technology

So I've just done it. I have signed up for YouTube.com and I feel a little soiled but I'm not quite sure why. The reason for undertaking such a monumental (or is that banal for some of you) task is that I want to share a video of an elderly scientist that I shot for a class project and to help upgrade the University of Colorado's Natural History Museum website. (Is that one word or two?)

The odd feeling comes from the embracing of technology that I not so long ago simply tolerated. In fact, I have not only embraced it but am currently adopting it as a component in my future career. I'm not talking about just using a computer but actually learning how to use it as an educational and research tool. I have to admit that I am pretty excited about the prospects.

Boring, right? Fair enough. But new knowledge is power, or some such cliche, and ultimately being about to disseminate information about the history of science and its future directions is a wonderful undertaking. To post video of someone who has shaped my future is an honor and allows the bringing to life those whose shoulders upon which we stand.

Stay tuned for more about the entire project.

Technology and the generation gap

Yesterday I returned from a trip to Huntsville, Texas. Not a horrible place considering it is a bedroom community for Houston. Sam Houston is prominent and so are prisons. Eight in all and people weren't quite sure why this level of density had graced this particular community. But we are off the subject.

The trip was part class project and part thesis project. Perhaps not really different. I was there to video tape an interview, conducted by me, of Dr. John Hilliard. Dr. Hilliard figures prominently in the world of orthopterophiles. That would be those interested in grasshoppers; a group into which I firmly fit. The majority of my MS thesis will focus on shifts in grasshopper distributions in Colorado during the past 60 years. This is where Dr. Hilliard comes in. His post doc was done under the guidance of Dr. Gordon Alexander. The two undertook a descriptive survey of the grasshoppers of Boulder, Colorado during the summers of 1958, '59, and '60.

The result is that the University of Colorado's Natural History Museum is now in possession of over 20,000 grasshopper specimens from this period of time. The goal of those involved is to re-sample a number of sites used by Alexander and Hilliard and determine what changes, if any, have taken place. With the help of an NSF grant we will be conducting this research and posting its results on the soon-to-be-updated museum website.

For more information check www.alexander.colorado.edu and stay tuned here for more information.

An article for consideration

Hello everyone. Greetings on this beautiful October day. Below is a link to an article that may be of interest. It prompted me to wonder about the nature of defining audiences as well as the benefits and drawbacks for brick and mortar museums.
http://conference.archimuse.com/biblio/opencollection_web_based_collection_cataloging_and_ac

Also, some related thoughts:
-Just watched a few episodes of Ken Burns' The War. It struck me that this was essentially a virtual museum; at least the manner in which the material is presented. Ideas?
-Museum2.0 has a great article on mash-ups and a fun video to watch. Highly recommended.

A new generation

I have just read a quote from Adele Z. Silver as it appeared in an article by Steven E. Weil. His article is From Being About Something to Being About Somebody. The quote is, "Museums are inventions of men, not inevitable, eternal, ideal, not divine. They exist for the things we put in them, and they change as each generation chooses how to see and use those things." Taken in the context of Elisa Giaccardi's article and the MUVI project I think this serves as a good vantage point from which our generation of museum professionals can continue to foster interest in museums and the potential they house.

A note to all those interested in learning more about insects. A cheap way to do so is to visit the open access publication Journal of Insect Science at www.insectscience.org.

Technology and entomolgy

Ever wonder about the benefits of grasshoppers? Me too. Hopefully, via this forum we can find an answer to this query. To start: they function as a food source for birds and they break down plant material allowing for a more efficient reintroduction of nutrients into the environment.