I got a letter a couple of weeks ago, announcing that we'd been approved for funding under a Museums Assistance Program grant. That was pretty exciting - it's always exciting when we get the funding to do a project that we very much need or want (often the same thing) to do.



In this case, the MAP funding, which comes from the Department of Canadian Heritage, will enable us to create a new database for the Museum and Archives collections, transfer all the data from our existing (very cumbersome and annoying) database, fix the problems we're encountering (multiple entries for the same object, objects located in locations that no longer exist, and especially inconsistent terms for the same types of objects or the same locations), and then put the whole thing on a laptop so we can actually take the database to the storage area or display that we're working on - no more writing everything out on paper, going into the office to do the database updates, then back to the storage areas to decipher the errors that inevitably occur, then back into the office...  We're really looking forward to this.

But what's really exciting is the fact that the PR people at the Department of Canadian Heritage have put out a media release about our funding.  I've had phone calls all day from newspapers and radio stations wanting to know more about it - so the Creston Museum is going to be making the news, and I didn't have to do a thing.

Hmmm.  Must say I do like it when other people do my job for me!

Read the full PCH press release here; they make us sound pretty good!