Meet The Team: Digital Assets Manager
Published on 4th June 2019
This week we find out more about our Digital Assets Manager, Andrea Deneau.
What are the key parts to your role?
My job at the Society is to manage our Online Collections, our internal images, and image and copyright requests. I also do much of the still photography (non-events) at the Society.
What do you like most about your job?
I like working directly with the collections. I studied to work with museum collections so it’s nice that although so much of my job is digital, I still get to physically handle objects. I like having to create special lighting or mounts in order to photograph more awkward items.
How did you end up in this job?
This is one of those “one thing led to another” stories. I have a degree in Biology and a diploma in Museum Studies and I was working on a project with the special collections in the Library at the Natural History Museum. My contract was coming to an end and a colleague who was on a committee with Linnean Society people knew the Society was looking for someone to do a project on its legacy journals, which I ended up doing. After that, I worked on three major digitisation projects and then someone was needed to manage all of these newly-acquired digital assets so I became the Digital Assets Manager.
What is your favourite species of animal or plant?
How is it possible to choose a favourite in nature? However, I have become a bit of a (very amateur) gardener and I have really gotten into Geum, which is kind of funny since the genus is a member of the Rose family (Rosaceae) and I’m not that into roses. Anyway, I love the flowers and vibrant colours and they really brighten up a garden for quite a long time every spring and summer.
What is the most interesting item to you in the Linnean Society collections?
I love the quirks, as most people do. While working on the Linnaean Manuscripts, there were several unexpected drawings and doodles supposedly by both Linnaeus and his son. Draughtsmen they were not but the sketches reveal that even in the 18th century, if you give someone a pen and paper and boredom, they can’t help but doodle.
What do you like to do in your spare time?
As mentioned above, I love to garden and this is my second summer on my allotment. I spend my commute reading and my lunch-hour swimming. I also love to bake and cook.