Natural Science Collections Alliance

Our members are part of an international community of museums, botanical gardens, herbariums, universities and other institutions that house natural science collections and utilize them in research, exhibitions, academic and informal science education, and outreach activities.

A Call for NSC Alliance Members

By NSCAPosted on Posted in Activities & Events, Correspondence, News & Updates

Dear NSC Alliance Membership,

The NSC Alliance is cosponsoring with the Biodiversity Collections Network (BCoN, http://bcon.aibs.org) a Collections Communications Workshop this September 1-2. The workshop will be held at The Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Illinois.

The BCoN (recently renamed from NIBA Research Coordination Network) is a five-year Research Coordination Network grant funded by the National Science Foundation. Among the goals of BCoN, which is a joint project of the NSC Alliance, American Institute of Biological Sciences, Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections, and iDigBio, is the development of a sustainable and networked national community able to work toward the implementation of the collection community developed Strategic and Implementation Plans for a Network Integrated Biocollections Alliance.

Through the BCoN Research Coordination Network, we have funds to support the participation of several individuals recommended by NSC Alliance member institutions.

The workshop will bring together communications (e.g. public relations staff), scientific staff (e.g. research, curators and collections managers, education/outreach), and institutional leaders/administrators to:

  1. Identify opportunities and barriers to communicating the benefits of natural science collections to decision-makers and the public.
  2. Explore the opportunities provided by national digitization initiatives to engage new stakeholders.
  3. Identify existing communication resources and consider the development of new resources.
  4. Explore the development of a networked community of communications professionals that could collaborate to deliver a proactive message to the public.

The workshop organizers are seeking nominations from NSC Alliance member institutions for participants in this important workshop.

To nominate an individual for participation in this workshop, please send the following information to rgr…@aibs.org by June 15, 2015.

  1. Name and contact information of nominating individual and institution;
  2. Name and contact information of nominee;
  3. Perspectives the individual can represent:
    • Leadership, science, communications, etc
    • Large, medium, small collection
    • Public or private institution
  4. Brief description (500 words maximum) of the nominee’s interest and/or experience with communicating the importance of collections and collections-based research and education to the media, policymakers, or institutional decision-makers.
  5. Would the nominee be willing and able to participate in an on-going working group should one emerge from this workshop?

Self-nominations from NSC Alliance member representatives are welcomed.

Please direct questions to rgr…@aibs.org.

A Call for NSC Alliance Members
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