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.
On 3 August 2011, the NSC Alliance wrote to Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) about scientific collections as a source of baseline environmental data. The letter was in response an inquiry Senator Whitehouse made on the issue of baseline data on ocean environments during a recent hearing held by the Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee […]
Additional Nominations Accepted Until August 15 2011 Annual NSCA Board elections are getting underway, as per the NSCA Bylaws (https://nscalliance.org/?page_id=16), which state: “The Nominating Committee shall furnish the names of nominees to the Secretary, who shall circulate them either in written or electronic form (e.g., web site) to the members at least thirty (30) days […]
Join the NSC Alliance and the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections for their fourth annual joint meeting, to be held May 23-28 2011 in San Francisco, California. This year, the meeting will focus on “Sustainable Museums–Sustaining Collections,†and will be hosted by the California Academy of Sciences in their Platinum LEED certified […]
On 17 November 2010, the Natural Science Collections Alliance (NSC Alliance) joined with nine other scientific societies and organizations to request that Congress pass an FY 2011 appropriations bill that would provide the National Science Foundation with $7.424 billion. The text of the letter follows (the same letter was sent to Representatives Obey and Lewis, […]
NSCA would like to thank all those who took the time to fill out the survey on collections and the economy. The survey is now closed. A report outlining survey results is forthcoming and will be posted to the NSCA website.
On September 15, 2010, the Natural Science Collections Alliance (NSC Alliance) joined 13 other scientific organizations to express concern “with the issue of intellectual property rights and ownership of research results that arise in the aftermath of incidents caused by industry, most recently, the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.†In a letter […]
On September 16, 2010, the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) and the Ecological Society of America (ESA) issued an open letter urging the Russian government to preserve the Pavlovsk Experiment Station in Saint Petersburg. The facility is home to more than 5,000 distinct varieties of fruit trees and plans, most of which are extinct […]
Two years ago as the economy was entering recession, the Natural Science Collections Alliance launched a survey to gather data on the effects of the economic downturn on natural science collections. To further increase our understanding of how natural science collections are being impacted by and responding to current economic conditions, the NSC Alliance is […]
On August 2, 2010, NSC Alliance submitted comments on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) draft Next Generation Strategic Plan. The comments identify the importance of NOAA’s scientific collections to the agency’s mission and call for the strategic plan to “address the curation of, and access to, the 40 scientific collections held by the […]
Several Natural Science Collections Alliance (NSC Alliance) members and other organizations have sent letters of support for a Presidential Executive Order to promote the preservation and use of scientific collections. The American Institute of Biological Sciences, the American Museum of Natural History, the American Public Gardens Association, the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, the […]