Grant Museum of Zoology Research Use Summary- Mark Carnall 01/09/2014
2013-2014 Research Use of the Grant Museum Collections
This is the second year that this report has been prepared summarising the research use of the
Grant Museum collections.
The only performance indicator for research use we are required to report on is a generic “number
of research visitors” a number derived from the weekly visitor sheet. For 2013-2014 this figure is 174
research uses (126 2012/13) which is broken down into 69 UCL researchers and 105 external
researchers (49 UCL, 77 external 2012/13). This is an increase of just under 40% overall and a
consistent 40% across both audiences. The number of returned research forms was 143 (91
2012/2013) a slight improvement over last year in terms of the number of researchers who were
given researcher forms. The following analyses are derived from the information given on these
forms.
Dates of Research
Number of Researchers
Number of Researchers
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Date
As with the previous year there do not appear to be any obvious trends in when we receive research
visitors however, in 2013-2014 there was much less of a pronounced quiet period from August
through to December. Aside from receiving more visits, compared to last year, the museum
accommodated many more research visits on a single day (in 2012-2013 there were only three days
with more than two researchers in on any given day compared to 9 this year). Busier periods for
researchers seems to be between February until April and another increase in July.
Type of Research
A lower proportion of the forms returned this year were missing information about the research
objective. Broadly grouping the type of research of the 143 forms returned, 25% were for
photography of specimens for research, 21% were artist drawing specimens, 10% were art
photography and drawing and 9% were measuring specimens for scientific research.
Grant Museum of Zoology Research Use Summary- Mark Carnall 01/09/2014
Other categories for study were; 4% lantern slide research (by two different researchers), 4% art
photography, 4% filming for documentaries and video presentations, 4% for zoological reference, 3%
interviewing staff members for research and 3% surveying visitors (one researcher over five days)
Categories with one or two research visits include marketing, researching drawings, shooting a video,
research for prop making, filming for an art piece, 100 Hours project research and scanning of
specimens.
Where specified the following research projects were supported:
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100 Hour Project
Cardiovascular Sciences Promotional Video Shoot
Researching drawing in scientific research/Illustration in Science
Video on the history of dissection
Photography for monthly fashion magazine
Performance/photo installation in Beadles Box for PhD
Gallery show
Undergraduate neuroscience documentary
Illustration
Prop Making
Photographic project ‘How specimens are kept in their own territory’
‘Corner of Natural Curiosities’ website blog
Notarium evolution in birds
Identification of possible mongoose on ancient Egyptian ostracon
Gibbon facial morphometrics / scanning
Developing and enhancing visitor experience
‘Quiet London’ book to be published
‘The teeth of living vertebrates’ ebook
Scopus Award documentary
Coding morphological characters of crocodylians for phylogenetic analysis
Digital innovations in museums focussing on visitor-generated content
Phylogenetic analysis of Palaeocene mammals
Stereographic photography project
London lifestyle website ‘Indigo’
Investigating relationships between bird egg size, shape and pelvic morphology
Evolution and ecology of pinniped ears
Illustrations for children’s book ‘Skull Collection – Animals’
Evolutionary biology of man and the vertebrates
Magic Lantern Slides
Prehistoric Animal Reconstruction
BASC Project
Patella evolution across the vertebrates
Fundraising for conservation through the World Land Trust
Textile design proofing
Comparative mechanobiology and evolution of patellar sesamoids
Grant Museum of Zoology Research Use Summary- Mark Carnall 01/09/2014
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Historic stone carving
Hand proportions in apes and monkeys
Long term continuity and variability of prehistoric foraging
Studies for illustration teaching- botany and zoology
Representations of animals
Interview about curatorship
Anatomy of the hand and muscle in Cebus and Saguinus
Study for etchings on native/foreign species to Hong Kong
Research drawings on vermin
Feature film pre-production
Comparative analysis of vocalisation characteristics and gape size in Felidae
Trying to become a goat
Type specimen digitisation
Display of objects to explore visitor responses to animal testing displays
Neolithic inhumations and cremations with faunal remains
Comparing primate pelves
Brown bears from Ireland
Invisible vision, outer space and the cybernetic eye
Parallel histories of astronomy and photography
Examining response based systems in gallery interactives
HE Researcher Institution
Of the 143 forms returned, 90 were from HE researchers. We received researchers from 23 different
HE institutions. The returned forms were as follows, sorted by frequency:
UCL (42)
Royal Veterinary College (2)
UAL: Central St Martins (4)
University of Lincoln (2)
University of Portsmouth (4)
Blake College (1)
UAL: Camberwell College of the Arts (4)
Guidhall School of Music and Drama (1)
King’s College London (4)
Prince’s Drawing School (1)
Not specified (3)
Royal College of Art (1)
Queen Mary’s (3)
University of Alba Inia Romania (1)
SOAS (3)
University of the Arts London (college not
specified) (1)
University of California Santa Cruz (3)
Birkbeck (2)
Manchester Metropolitan (2)
Rhode Island School of Design (2)
University of Greenwich (1)
University of Hertfordshire (1)
University of London (college not specified) (1)
University of South Wales (1)
Grant Museum of Zoology Research Use Summary- Mark Carnall 01/09/2014
How did you find out about the Collection?
Responses sorted by frequency. Unlike the previous year, ‘word of mouth’ is the top category. We
received far less researchers who were recommended to contact the museum by a supervisor or
tutor which was the most frequent response (16) for 2013-2013. There were also no
recommendations from other museum colleagues (13 last year) and an increase in the number of
visits following attendance at an event or activity.
Word of mouth (25)
Timeout
UCL (22)
Conversation Pieces
Online (15)
UCL Symposium ‘Origin of Life’
Walking past (6)
Research
Tutor on course (5)
UCL website
Work colleague (5)
‘Attack of the Shrews’ cinema show
Already knew about collection (4)
ZSL
Taught HE sessions in the museum before
(4)
Trip Advisor
Previous visit (4)
UCL Alumni (2)
Friend of the Museum
Everyone knows!
Lived in London before
Comment on service provision
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5/5
Perfect/10 out of 10 (2)
Superb
Fantastic (4)
Very excellent (as always)
Excellent (28)
Brilliant (6)
Extremely helpful, thank you(3)
Extremely warm and professional
Exceedingly helpful and friendly (2)
Very good (9)
Very informative and friendly (2)
Very helpful and approachable (2)
Really friendly, helpful,
accommodating (3)
Great extremely welcoming and
helpful
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Great very helpful
Really good
Great (8)
Good (6)
Efficient/knowledgeable and friendly
Superb service!
Very high quality service
EXCELLENT OUTSTANDING
Perfect
Amazing
Awesome
Lovely
The help with this project has been
great and will benefit my dissertation
research
High quality
Grant Museum of Zoology Research Use Summary- Mark Carnall 01/09/2014
Objects Researched
Of the 143 forms returned only 110 of them had specimen lists associated with them, a significant
jump over last year’s 36 specimen lists associated with 92 researcher forms. This was either due to
them not being completed, not being given to our art drawing and art photography researchers or
because research was not based around specimens. For the 110 forms filled in a total 3840 (344
from last year) objects were used in research.
Taxa Researched
Lepidoptera
Unspecified (slides)
Aves
Primates
Reptilia
Carnivora
Foraminifera
Amphibia
Fish
Chiroptera
Artiodactyla
Marsupialia
Perissodactyla
Echinoidea
Cephalopoda
Rodentia
Porifera
Soricomorpha
Crustacea
Cetacea
Insecta
Perissodactyla
Lagomorpha
Monotreme
Chondrichtyes
Mixed Jars
Scandentia
Mollusca
Cetacea
Pholidota
As can be seen from the chart above, the data was hugely skewed by a small number of researchers
using drawers of Lepidoptera specimens and researchers looking at magic lantern slides. Birds are
the next biggest taxa followed by primates, reptiles and carnivorans. Foraminifera visits were mostly
from the 100 Hours project work.
Grant Museum of Zoology Research Use Summary- Mark Carnall 01/09/2014
Object Category Used
Dry Pinned
Lantern slides
Skeleton
Fluid
Model
Taxidermy
Dry
Fossil
Cast
Skin
Documents
Microscope Slides
Again, there’s a huge skew towards the research uses of the entomology and lantern slide
collections as typically it’s easier for researchers to access a high number of these specimens.
Skeletal material was the next highest category.
Online Usage Statistics
This year the online usage statistics were provided by the digital resources manager. A summary is
provided here but the full report has been saved on the shared drive.
In total there were 7560 queries to the online database. 6969 of these were simple searches. The
table below shows the top five most frequent searches under different fields. There were 1268
object views through Europeana and Culture Grid combined.
Simple Search
cat 61
dodo 61
dog 49
mole 49
skeleton 46
Object category
skeleton 82
fluid 12
Skeleton 11
fossil 8
taxidermy 8
Taxonomy
rodentia 10
insecta 5
primate 5
Chiroptera 4
crocodylia 4
Accession no.
V329 33
[blank] 8
z133 6
NON3800 4
Z2273 4
Description
Skeleton 9
skull 7
pinned 6
Thyroid 3
skeleton 3
Developmental
adult 9
foetus 3
adlt 2
Synsacrum 1
juvenil 1
Common Name
zebra 5
shark 3
orangutan 3
frog 3
Chimpanzee 3
Grant Museum of Zoology Research Use Summary- Mark Carnall 01/09/2014
As can be seen from the above summary, with the exception of the simple search terms, many of
these searches with smaller number of frequencies are probably the result of staff using the online
catalogue in day to day work. The results from the simple searches looks like online visitors are
finding the online catalogue but are stumped for what to look for beyond some of the museum’s
better known specimens and two pet animals. A high number of the total 7560 queries are also
probably staff using the online catalogue in the day to day work of the museum.