The big news that we want to bring you is that Museum in a Box batch 5 is now shipping and available to purchase from the store. That’s the most important thing we need to tell you.
As we mentioned in our last update, to get back to making boxes we needed to redesign some of the electronics, including the computer at the heart of it. That meant we had to rewrite the software, and that’s done too. It’s faster to boot up and now uses USB-C.
We also took this opportunity to replace the NFC reader. The old ones were getting difficult to source and were one of the weaker components in the design. The new one is designed in-house and we’ve released it as open source hardware for other folk to use too!
All of this means that we have solved the supply issues which had plagued us post pandemic.
We have been busy and although we might not have been busy writing blog posts we have been busy sending post, as most of Batch 4 went out to the British Library for their project Beyond the Bassline: 500 years of Black British Music. The British Library in turn circulated these to partner libraries up and down the country with accompanying objects for Beyond the Bassline.
Partner libraries across the country each received a pair of boxes to take Beyond the Bassline to a national audience. Some of the libraries came up with their own local projects to complement it, for example Coventry Libraries came up with Tales of Two Tone which has proved really popular, looking at the number of boops they have had. You can see Coventry’s collection on the Heart platform here.
We’d also like to highlight the wonderful display that Suffolk Libraries have made of theirs. The easy chairs look great to settle down in for a afternoon of easy listening.
If you would like to experience Beyond the Bassline in your area them some projects are still open to engage with, you can find where and what dates they are available on the British Library’s Living Knowledge Network.
This summer, we had some great feedback while displaying Museum in a Box at Liverpool Makefest: teachers who were busy booping our Try Me Objects were telling us just how useful they would be in the classroom; and kids enjoying hearing the different frogs from Frogs in a Box.
For now folks that is all but we promise that we will be bringing you more soon. Did we mention that Museum in a Box batch 5 is now available?