Employee case studies

Katrina Cook, Curator, Bird Group

Katrina Cook

Katrina prepares bird skins so that they can be studied, and repairs specimens in the bird collection, the largest of its kind in the world.

What is your background?

A bird artist by profession, Katrina learned taxidermy and made an extensive study of avian anatomy for her own personal research.

For many years she built up her own reference collection of bird skins and contributed to the collections at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter. Katrina has donated her collections to the Natural History Museum where they can be put to scientific use.

Katrina is also a qualified bird ringer and a keen birdwatcher. This is her ideal job. 'There are ups and downs of course,' she says, 'but I'm happier here than I'd ever thought possible, there's really nowhere I would rather be.'

What are your daily tasks?

In Katrina's office awaits a dozen or so specimens with a combination of wings, legs, heads, tails and labels detached.

Katrina takes a real pride in operating a 'while-u-wait' repair service for visitors. One bird has its beak half snapped off and sticking out at a painful-looking angle. 'Oh good!' Katrina exclaims to my amazement, 'that'll be a challenge'.

Katrina then proceeds to re-attach all the body parts, all the while imparting little gems of wisdom like 'imping' broken flight feathers back together with a pin, or straightening bent feathers with the steam from a kettle.

On her desk too is an assortment of enquiries that the Bird Group deals with on a daily basis. Letters from members of the public about mystery bird sightings, feathers for identification, requests for DNA samples, incoming and outgoing loans. The list is endless and constantly varied.

What is your most unusual task?

On one occasion Katrina was asked to escort a mounted great bustard to a television studio for an appearance on The Richard and Judy Show.

What are your current projects?

Katrina has stacks of notes and books on her desk to research a variety of forthcoming public events, including a Radio 4 broadcast about Audubon, an appropriately titled Private View Stuff the Birds - this is Art' and a Christmas Nature Live talk on turkeys.

Back in the lab, Katrina has finished blow-drying the fulmar, inserted a wood wool body and is carefully arranging its feathers so that it does indeed look immaculate. It'll spend the next few weeks drying, then two more weeks in quarantine in the freezer before becoming incorporated into the collections.

Final thoughts

It's ironic how a bunch of dead birds can be such a vital tool for conservation. 'This place is so much bigger than I am', Katrina confides, 'and sometimes I'm completely overawed by it, but we're just passing through and have to do our best to take care of it. It holds the answers to a lot of questions that haven't even been asked yet.'

Mat Richmond, Retail Warehouse Manager

Mat Richmond

Mat works in the Business and Commercial Department. He has had a passion for the natural world since he was a child and is especially keen on botany and ecology.

Where did you work previously?

Mat joined the Museum in June 2004 after eight years with Sainsbury's.

Working in an environment that he really loves, and in a place that people love visiting is a new thing for Mat. People shopping at Sainsbury's are completing a household chore, but visitors to the Museum are here to enjoy themselves. Dealing with smiling faces on a daily basis is a hugely refreshing change for Mat.

What is your daily routine like?

Mat spends a lot of his time deep in the basement of the Waterhouse building in the vast retail warehouse, where the many and varied items of stock for our shops reside.

Mat sums up his daily job, 'I move boxes'. It sounds simple, but it is a vital part of ensuring that the Museum is up and running for the public every day. The success of the retail side is dependent on the movement of stock, and ensuring that we move things in and out logically is one of the fundamental aspects of Mat's job.

'It is one of those things that is easy to do badly. But, once you know the methods you can apply them to existing systems and then improve on them'. The bottom line is that if Mat and his colleagues do not get it right, people can't buy things.

What do you enjoy most about your job?

Mat's favourite aspect of his job is troubleshooting. He loves getting creative with solving problems. 'I can do the routines in my sleep. I made sure of that when I arrived' he says, 'so now I can focus on making those routines better'.

What do you find interesting about working at the Museum?

Mat finds the jobs and roles that people do across the Museum fascinating. In fact, he meets up with his induction group once a week to keep them tuned in, not only to what's going on with each other's jobs, but also their lives in general. He is enthusiastic about the Museum, and feels that opportunities to know more about others are invaluable.

Paul Davis, Registrar

Paul Davis

Paul has been the Museum's Registrar since April 2004 and reports to Prof Richard Lane, the Director of Science.

What is your daily role?

'I annoy people' says Paul Davis with a smile. 'I pester people to follow the rules or to do things. I have one of those jobs that's really odd'.

As Registrar, Paul's goal is to ensure the Museum has consistent collections management standards, policies and procedures.

How has your role changed?

When Paul joined the Museum in March 2000, he started out as curator of fossil plants in Palaeontology. Just under two years ago he was seconded to the Science Directorate to lead the collections standards project.

Then, when it became apparent that the Museum needed a Registrar to tackle the issue on a wider basis, Paul applied for the role.

Now his tasks vary on a daily basis from preparing commercial documents that allow imports and exports of animal materials, to ensuring the museum's new collections management system conforms to the UK standard.

What's one of your favourite tasks?

Most of Paul's tasks involve him talking to people from all over the Museum, which he feels is one of the best bits.'I find out what they're up to, and it makes me realise how diverse our organisation is.'

What is your main focus?

The main focus is getting our collections management policies and procedures updated. This is a five-year project. 'As time goes on, my job will become easier, but when I took the job on, I realised that it would be completely hectic for five years. It's actually unusual to have just one person tackling all these issues.'

How did you end up at the Museum?

Paul reveals that destiny may have had a hand in bringing him to the Museum.

His grandmother worked for Gibbs & Canning, the company that made the terracotta reliefs for the original construction of the Waterhouse building. The moulds they used to create the reliefs ended up in the garden walls of his grandmother's house.

Paul grew up looking at these, a symbol of the lasting nature of the Museum. All these years later, he's here, and it stands to reason that the project Paul is working on now will have a lasting impact too.