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.
The Society of Herbarium Curators is offering two $500 research grants for students. The awards will be made to students whose research contributes to or uses herbarium resources in ways that augment the collections. Research on any taxa typically accessioned in herbaria including all plant, fungal, lichen, and algal lineages is eligible. Supported activities could […]
Scientists, collections managers, and graduate students who are interested in communicating the importance of federal investments in scientific research and education to lawmakers are invited to participate in the Biological and Ecological Sciences Coalition (BESC) Congressional Visits Day in Washington, DC. This event is an opportunity for scientists to meet with their members of Congress […]
An article in the December 2014 issue of CLS Journal of Museum Studies, published by the University of Oklahoma, highlights the value of curators to university and museum collections. The article presents the results of a survey of curators. Read “Preliminary Quantification of Curator Success in Life Science Natural History Collections” for free at http://www.ou.edu/content/dam/cls/documents/CLS_JMS_Dec2014.pdf.
The deadline for the Heritage Health Information 2014: A National Collections Care Survey has been extended to 13 February 2015. If you have not had the opportunity to complete your survey, now is the time. Invitations to participate were sent to institution directors in October. These invitations included personalized login information, which may be entered […]
In 2014, the NSC Alliance engaged in a number of notable activities to raise the profile of natural history collections with policymakers, researchers, and the general public. A few highlights are presented below: Partnered with the American Institute of Biological Sciences and the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections to launch a national […]
The America Museum of Natural History (AMNH) has created a new video series that will explore the museum’s scientific collections. The first episode of “Shelf Life” highlights the diversity of the 33 million items in the collection. New episodes will premiere monthly at http://www.amnh.org/shelf-life.
The Smithsonian Institution has launched a new initiative to better understand biodiversity genomics. “Our goal is to pioneer novel genomic approaches, integrate them into biological endeavors throughout the Smithsonian and serve as a resource for genomics research around the world,” said Pierre Comizzoli, research biologist and Director of the Grand Challenges Consortia for Science at […]
With only days left before a stopgap funding measure expires, Congress finally found agreement on federal funding levels for fiscal year (FY) 2015. The deal was reached more than two months after the fiscal year began. The lead negotiators on the deal released a joint statement about the legislation: “As we close in on our […]
An article in the December 2014 issue of BioScience considers the benefits of natural history collections and offers advice for the financial support of such collections. “Assessing the Value of Natural History Collections and Addressing Issues Regarding Long-Term Growth and Care†was written by several research staff at the Natural Science Research Laboratory at the […]
The National Park Service is proposing changes to the regulations regarding curation of federally-owned and administered archeological collections. The rule, if adopted, would establish definitions, standards, and procedures to dispose of particular material remains that are determined to be of insufficient archaeological interest. There is not currently a defined process for disposition of such materials. […]