Mendocino County Museum goes virtual during pandemic

The staff at the Mendocino County Museum has remained busy, despite being unable to physically open their doors to patrons. Museum Curator Karen Mattson described the projects museum staff has been working on and virtual offerings they are currently providing the community saying, “We are staying very busy.”

Mattson said there are always a lot of projects to do at the museum, pandemic or not. The staff recently moved the curator’s library downstairs and established a reference room. Research Librarian, Benjamin MacBean, converted the materials to utilize the Dewey Decimal Classification system, and the museum acquired the Willits Library’s reference collection as well. Mattson said, “Our reference library is growing and looking really nice.”

Another project museum staff is working towards is securing a program called Past Perfect Online. The museum has been using the program Past Perfect however Mattson said, “One of our goals moving forward during the pandemic is to acquire the online feature, which would be on our website. The community would be able to get our records, up to date and a bunch of photographs.” Reference Books would be searchable through the database so community members could get an idea what they are looking for before they come into the museum reference room. Mattson said, “It’s a really big project but we are really excited.” The program is still in the beginning stages, but the groundwork has been laid.

Aside from working on projects, museum staff continues to offer services to the community. Currently, the museum welcomes all research requests, and a request form is available online at the museum’s website. Staff recently added a section to the website called ‘Engage’ that showcases a variety of educational materials such as a video on penmanship that was made in house, and an upcoming back to school series that will highlight crafts made in Mendocino County in the late 1800s and early 1900s. They have also added a ‘ Then and Now’ section featuring school photos and another featuring school objects.

The museum has new exhibits up for virtual viewing and are currently showing, ‘ Wonacott, the photographer in your town’ on their Facebook page.

There is also an ongoing online exhibit called ‘ The Curiosity Cabinet,’ where they feature objects that might not have an obvious use. Mattson said, “We have turned it into an internet game that allows us to take a photo of the object, enter it in our database and this is a chance for people to see it as we are doing that project… it’s just meant to be fun and give people an opportunity to see things that maybe haven’t been on display.”

There is also an upcoming Genealogy event in the works. With no timeline on when the museum might be able to physically reopen, Mattson said, “We are working really hard at making our collection as available as possible so that’s our main priority, how can we get our collection either on Facebook or on our website, and what engaging activities we can offer online.”

Check out the museum website at; https:// www. mendocinocounty.org/government/cultural-servicesagency/museumand follow them on Facebook.