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 National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has updated its Best Practices for Biospecimen Resources. Major revisions include the addition of new sections on biospecimen resource management and operations and conflict of interest, expansion of recommendations related to custodianship and informed consent, and harmonization with current federal guidance documents and recommendations […]
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 […]
On 21 July, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) issued a joint memorandum providing guidance to federal agencies on the formulation of science and technology priorities in the fiscal year (FY) 2012 budget. The four-page document includes a provision on federal science collections: “Agencies […]
The Documentation Committee of the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC) requests your participation in a survey involving best practice topics pertinent to natural history museums. The survey seeks to better understand the information and resource needs of the natural history collections community, including museums, parks, university collections, and other organizations caring […]
A collection of over 10 million shells housed at Philadelphia’s Academy of Natural Sciences is being used by scientists to better understand historical levels of environmental contamination in the Gulf of Mexico. The collection, dating back to 1812, includes more than 100 oyster shells collected from the Gulf between 1887 and 1960. Shells can serve […]
Botanic Gardens Conservation International — US, United States Botanic Garden, and Harvard University’s Arnold Arboretum are conducting an important survey to document all living plant collections in North America as part of a regional and global assessment. Survey organizers thank those who have already contributed their collection’s taxa list to the PlantSearch database, and encourage […]
Two recent publications on pollution in National Parks utilized natural history collections to establish baselines of environmental contamination. Published in the June 15 issue of Environmental Science and Technology, the studies found that pesticides and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were prevalent throughout National Parks in the western United States. “I think what continues to surprise […]
On June 23, 2010, the NSC Alliance sent a letter to Senate committee staff working to develop the chamber’s version of the reauthorization of the America COMPETES Act. In short, the NSC Alliance requested that the Senate clarify and expand the provisions of Section 121 in the House-passed version of the legislation. The letter references […]
President Obama wrote to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on June 18 to request a number of changes to his administration’s budget proposal for fiscal year (FY) 2011. Among the amendments was a request to increase the FY 2011 budget for the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to $265,869,000, an increase of $313,000 over […]
On June 18, 2010, the NSC Alliance wrote to Representative Madeleine Bordallo (D-Guam) to thank her for recognizing the importance of scientific collections to our capacity to understand how the Deepwater Horizon oil spill will influence the biological systems of the Gulf of Mexico. Bordallo is Chair of the House Subcommittee on Insular Affairs, Oceans […]