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.
In April, the Biodiversity Collections Network (BCoN) conducted a survey of the natural history collections/museum community to understand how COVID-19 related economic disruptions are affecting the work of professionals associated with such collections. The results were shared with the scientific community, including federal program managers and policymakers, in May 2020. This second survey follows up […]
A federal judge at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has ruled against the Trump Administration’s effort to narrow the reach of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) of 1918. A 2017 legal opinion by the Department of the Interior solicitor’s office concluded that incidental bird take resulting from an […]
A new special collection of natural history collection related articles from BioScience highlights some of the exciting new ways scientists and educators are mobilizing and using biodiversity data from natural history collections. The collection entitled, Natural History Collections: Advancing the Frontiers of Science, is available at https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/pages/natural-history-collections.
National Fossil Day, an annual celebration organized by the National Park Service (NPS), will take place on October 14, 2020. The event highlights the scientific and educational value of paleontology and the importance of preserving fossils for future generations. The annual celebration will include paleontology activities planned by partner organizations across the United States. NSC […]
Lawmakers in both chambers of Congress have introduced bipartisan legislation to provide emergency relief appropriations for federal science agencies to support the research community during the ongoing public health crisis. On June 24, 2020, the Research Investment to Spark the Economy (RISE) Act (H.R. 7308) was introduced by Representatives Diana DeGette (D-CO), Fred Upton (R-MI), […]
On July 6, 2020, United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued a new guidance that would have forced international students to leave the U.S. if they did not participate in in-person instruction during the fall 2020 semester. The ICE guidance modified temporary exemptions issued in March because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Those provisions […]
Two articles published in the July 2020 issue of BioScience — an Editorial led by NSC Alliance Treasurer Jennifer Zaspel and a Viewpoint led by Past-President Joe Cook — are calling for increased coordination and new strategies for integrating biodiversity collections into efforts to tackle pathogen discovery and emerging infectious diseases, including zoonoses. In the […]
Recognizing the rapid changes happening within museum communities and the efforts being made throughout the community to adapt to these changes, iDigBio is organizing a new webinar series, entitled, Adapting to COVID-19: Resources for Natural History Collections in a New Virtual World. The webinar series aims to help provide insight into how different groups and […]
On July 10, 2020, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a notice ordering hospitals to bypass the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and send all COVID-19 patient data to a centralized database effective July 15, 2020. The directive raised concerns about transparency and public access to data for researchers as […]
The Biodiversity Collections Network (BCoN) is working to help the scientific and natural history collections/museum community understand how COVID-19 related economic disruptions are affecting research, education, specimen and data management and care, institutional administration, and other factors. Results of a community survey of collections professionals were shared recently. BCoN continues to track impacts to natural […]