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 New York Times covered a new study that used natural history specimens to measure historical air pollution. In “The Dirty Secrets Saved in Dead Birds’ Feathers,” author Joanna Klein writes about how the soot on bird specimens collected since 1850 can be used to figure out urban air pollution before federal monitoring standards were […]
The presidents of the Natural Science Collections Alliance and the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections sent a joint letter to the director of Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi in Brazil. The museum is facing large budget cuts. An excerpt of the letter follows. “The international links between institutions are strong and increasingly important […]
A Brazilian museum is facing major budget cuts. The Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi has closed its Amazon biodiversity research unit and zoological park. Its scientific collections are also threatened. The museum’s director sent out an open letter to the world. A translation of part of the letter follows. “[I]n view of the situation as it […]
The National Science Foundation is currently accepting grant proposals for the Advancing Digitization of Biodiversity Collections (ADBC) program. This program seeks to enhance and expand the national resource of digital data documenting existing vouchered biological and paleontological collections and to advance scientific knowledge by improving access to digitized information (including images) residing in vouchered scientific […]
The National Park Service is planning for the annual celebration of National Fossil Day, which will take place on October 11, 2017. National Fossil Day is a nationwide celebration that will include paleontology activities planned by partner organizations across the United States. NSC Alliance has once again partnered with the National Park Service to promote […]
Nearly 950 museum organizations signed a letter to Congress about the need for the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The agency was proposed for elimination in President Trump’s 2018 budget request. NSC Alliance was among the signatories, as were several NSC Alliance member organizations. “While we acknowledge the many pressing priorities in the […]
A fire at a historic building at the University of Vermont threatened the natural history collections in the Pringle Herbarium. Initial assessments, however, indicate that the collection was not harmed. The herbarium holds the state’s largest flora collection–more than 300,000 specimens. The specimens date back to 1810. The building also houses the university’s insect and […]
The National Science Foundation is accepting proposals for the Collections in Support of Biological Research Program through August 14, 2017. The Collections in Support of Biological Research Program provides funds: 1) for improvements to secure and organize collections that are significant to the NSF BIO-funded research community; 2) to secure collections-related data for sustained, accurate, […]
iDigBio is now the largest virtual collection of natural history specimens in the world. The National Science Foundation-sponsored initiative surged past 100 million digitized records in July 2017. “What’s exciting about being at more than 100 million specimen records is you can ask larger questions over space, time and biodiversity. Big data sheds light not […]
Four universities in the southeastern U.S. have stepped forward to house natural history collections from the University of Louisiana at Monroe. The university had previously threatened to destroy more than 80,000 jars of scientific specimens and 450,000 plant specimens if new homes could not be located. “[T]he specimens will remain available to researchers nationwide as […]