bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The National Collection of Arachnida, South Africa: Making the Collection more Accessible
Authors: Marais Petro , Menyatso Maggie , Lyle Robin , Chiloane Simangele
Published: June 2018

The National Collection of Arachnida (NCA) was established in 1976 at the Agricultural Research Council – Plant Health & Protection (ARC-PHP) in Pretoria, South Africa. This collection forms part of South Africa’s National Assets, which the ARC manages and maintains on behalf of the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST). The specimen holdings of the NCA contain a wealth of associated taxonomic, biological and geographical information. Currently the collection is managed by a dedicated collection manager responsible for the day-to-day running of the collection assisted by one research assistant. It is utilized for various research activities and knowledge generation in the fields of agriculture and natural resource management. The specimens are preserved using 75% alcohol and held in a double vial method in order to maximize protection of the specimens against evaporation and breakage. Hand-written catalogue books are still used to record and allocate a unique NCA – AcAT number for each specimen. This number links to all primary data recorded for the specimen. Furthermore, the data associated with the specimens are digitized according to Darwin-Core guidelines in an Structured Query Language (SQL) relational database. The database was developed by the ARC-Information Technology services.

The entire NCA presently houses approximately 77,780 catalogue entries representing more than 233,300 specimens from six Arachnida orders. The NCA is made up mainly of reference specimens, but also has a type specimen collection of newly described species.

The type collection currently contains 1,018 type specimens representing 321 species in 136 genera and 42 families. Of these, 207 specimens are holotypes. The type collection is housed separately from the reference collection and was recently moved to a newly acquired fireproof cabinet. Further planned activities include taking photos of all type specimens using a Zeiss V.16 Zoom microscope so that all type holdings are fully digitized. This will allow the implementation of an electronic loans system. Updating of the types list in the collection will facilitate availability for the wider community.

The NCA provides support for key services such as the identification of arachnid predators that have an impact on agricultural production and bio-security as well as a specimen identification and advisory service to government, farmers, industry, researchers, students and the public. These services are essential for research projects on biosystematics and relevant related fields such as conservation, decision-making, agriculture and natural resource management.
Implementing 'Museum Victoria Wireless Input System for EMu (MVWISE)' Barcoding for Location Management of a Wet Type Collection
Authors: Rowley Chris , Taylor Joanne
Published: June 2018

The Non-Arthropod Wet Type Collection consists of approximately 1660 lots of specimens spread across 13 phyla. The collection covers a range of taxa including Annelida (earthworms, leeches, bristle worms); Echinodermata (sea stars, brittle stars, sea cucumbers); Mollusca (snails, octopus, squid, cuttlefish); Porifera (sponges); Cnidaria (anemones, hydroids). The majority of specimens in the collection are preserved in 70% ethanol or 10% formalin.

Being a collection of zoological type specimens, this collection is considered to be of high scientific value and is irreplaceable. Concerns over possible deterioration and a lack of documented history of preservation, led the Museums Victoria Marine Invertebrate Section and Conservation Department to undertake an audit to assess and document the current state of the collection. The aim of the assessment was to:

establish baseline data covering the physical condition of specimens, jars and seals.

assess the chemical properties of the preservation fluid.

where required, undertake appropriate preventative and remedial treatment.

data gathered from the audit will be loaded onto the museum’s database (EMu).

As part of the audit, implementation of a storage location management system using Museums Victoria Wireless Input System for EMu (MVWISE) was incorporated into the project. Storage location management using MVWISE ensures that object and container records have their current Location updated in EMu when they are physically moved. Implementing object barcoding in a collection that is preserved in fluid where specimens are tiny and stored in vials is problematic. We report on the strategy used to overcome these issues without compromising the best practice for fluid preserved specimens. Advantages of barcoding the fluid preserved specimens of the Invertebrate Type Collection at Museums Victoria include the ability to easily audit the collection even when the taxonomic nomenclature has changed.
Exploring Skeletal Preparation Techniques: Recuration of Botswana Mammals from a 1969 Expedition Using TergazymeTM
Authors: Selvey Hannah , Doll Andrew , Stephenson Jeff
Published: June 2018

We explored the efficiency of TergazymeTM bone cleaning techniques to recurate mammalian skeletal material from a 1969 expedition to Botswana, in Southern Africa. Mr. J.D. Putnam and colleagues shot and killed over 400 specimens during this expedition, bringing them back as trophies. These skeletal materials and skins of these specimens have remained in the collections at Denver Museum of Nature and Science (DMNS), after haphazard preparation with pesticides such as dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT) and negligent soft tissue removal. Many of the skulls and post-cranial materials are coated with dessicated muscle and other connective tissues, including cartilage around the turbinate bones, and most of the soft tissue remains on the surface of the hard palate. These materials continue to emit noxious fumes permeating even the protective archival plastic and cardboard within which they had been temporarily stored. Recuration of these specimens needs to consider the safety of the preparator and other volunteers, and the fragile state of skull and post-cranial materials in DDT for nearly five decades.

TergazymeTM is a concentrated detergent used to remove protein and other biological tissues from medical instruments (Alconox, Inc. 2006). This detergent isauthorized by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), biodegradable, and uses a protease enzyme from the bacterial organism Bacillus licheniformis, which produces enzymes commonly used for industrial purposes. Though TergazymeTM is widely used at a dilution of 1:100, for cleaning medical instruments, we found that an aqueous solution with smaller dilution factors combined with heat and manual agitation (using a stirring rod or other circulating tool) was able to soften the tough dessicated tissues from skulls and post-cranial materials of many different specimens. We removed elements from the macerating solution approximately every two to five days (depending on size) and used dental tools and brushes, rinsing with water, to complete the cleaning of the bones. Throughout the summer of 2017, we cleaned and recurated osteological materials from a dozen specimens, including the groups Acinonyx, Crocuta, Genetta, Hyaena, Ichneumia, Lycaon, Panthera, and Proteles. Besides the benefit of making these materials available and safe for researchers to use, this project revealed pre-mortem bone pathologies in a lion Panthera leo that were previously invisible under dessicated flesh. In addition to their physical availability, digital before and after images will be made available via collection management information system, Arctos. Discoveries such as these can also be compared to more recent specimens for longitudinal pathological studies.
Containing the Spirits: Lessons learned from the Management of Australasian Herbarium Wet Collections.
Authors: Collins Bronwyn , Zich Frank , Palmer Jo , Brown Gill , Knight Karina , Schönberger Ines , James Shelley , Toms Emma
Published: June 2018

Several herbaria in Australia and New Zealand have recently been required to implement changes to the way in which spirit (alcohol or wet) specimens are managed in their institutions in order to deal with various curatorial and staff health and safety challenges. We will present an overview of some of the key lessons learned from addressing issues such as mould, FAA (formalin-acetic acid and alcohol solution), inadequate housing and storage of our spirit specimens whilst also ensuring that best-practice curation standards are implemented along with appropriate work health and safety practices to protect staff.

For example, the National Herbarium of New South Wales spirit collection was stored until 2017 in metal filing cabinets and open wooden shelving. Due to unstable air-conditioning resulting in high humidity and condensation, mould had formed on all of the bottles and on all wooden surfaces. The external surface of each bottle was cleaned with prior to removal from the dedicated spirit collection room, the wooden shelving was replaced with open metal shelving, and room cleaned and resealed prior to return of the collection. Monitoring of the environment and condition of the collection continues, and future actions include replacing the specimen vials, many of which have failing lids.

The Western Australian Herbarium recently renovated its spirit storage area from specimens stored in boxes on fixed open shelving to individual bottles filed in metal drawers. Health and safety concerns for staff handling heavy boxes, often up ladders, combined with the inflexible and inefficient use of space on fixed shelving are now solved. Plenty of space is available for specimen expansion, and the ease of access to each specimen makes the collection simple to maintain. The next step for the collection is to protect it better by implementing climate control.

FAA was used as a fixative and preservative for plant fruit, flowers and other parts pre-1992 at the Australian National Herbarium in Canberra and the Australian Tropical Herbarium in Cairns. In response to changes in the Hazardous Substance classification for Formaldehyde a program was developed that focused on worker safety during replacement of the solution in approximately 15,000 bottles by minimising exposure and managing the manual handling risks of the work, whilst also ensuring best-practice curatorial outcomes for the specimens.

This is a presentation on behalf of the Managers of Australasian Herbarium Collections (MAHC), a network of herbarium Collection Managers in Australia and New Zealand.
Overcoming the Tyranny of Distance: Revealing Type Collections Down-Under.
Authors: Blom Wilma
Published: June 2018

Auckland Museum’s Natural Science collections contain several thousands of biological primary types, some dating back to well over a 100 years.

Biological type specimens are important for the recognition of new species, because they are the specimens on which species names and descriptions are based, and so they are the standards against which all potentially new species are measured. As by definition there can only ever be one primary type for each species, these are the unique specimens with highest scientific value.

Fun fact one: More than almost any other country, New Zealand has a very high percentage of endemic fauna and flora, which means species that are found nowhere else.

Fun fact two: In New Zealand we only know about 50% of our biodiversity, which means half of all our species are yet to be discovered and described.

Therefore, our type collections are actively growing as more and more species are discovered and more and more type specimens are lodged in our collections. Because they are unique, types are of great interest to researchers. However, because of our remote position on the globemany researchers request loans of our type specimens rather than travel the long distance to Auckland. Although such practices were common in the past, we, like many other modern natural history institutions no longer allow the loan of many of these unique items. The risk of damage or loss en route to the recipient and back is considered too great. However, it is a disservice to science not to make types available for study.

So in 2008 we launched a project to digitise our type collections. This talk will focus on how high resolution images of our primary types, and their online publication, has removed much of the need for loans and thereby lessened the risks to these important specimens. At the same time it has made our type collections more visible and accessible to a much greater audience.
Managers of Australasian Herbarium Collections (MAHC): A MARK of Curation Excellence
Authors: Jobson Peter , Birch Joanne , Brown Gillian , Bruhl Jeremy J. , Cave Lyn , Hemmings Frank , Hirst Sarah , James Shelley , Knight Karina , Kusabs Antony , Milne Pina , Schonberger Ines , Zich Frank
Published: June 2018

Managers of Australasian Herbarium Collections (MAHC) is a sub-committee of the Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria (CHAH) and provides advice and recommendations pertaining to the management of herbarium collections. It was formed in 2009 based initially on Australian herbaria, and later incorporated New Zealand herbaria. MAHC currently has 18 member institutions representing both government funded, and university based herbaria, and includes both the largest (National Herbarium of Victoria - MEL) and smallest collections (Macquarie University - MQU) in the region. The group meets in person annually, and holds regular conference phone calls throughout the year.

MAHC has proved itself to be a very cohesive committee, despite time, sizing, staffing, and funding differences. It prides itself in being inclusive, cooperative, collegiate, collaborative and supportive. It has a strong mentor approach toward early career collections managers or those new to collections management. The group has a healthy forward planning outlook, developing, promoting and implementing collections management policy, recommendations, guidelines and standards. This cohesion has resulted in a toolkit of resources that are freely available and strives for a unified world class best practice herbarium curation. Some of these universally agreed tools include templates, biosecurity documents, disaster mitigation and preparation for Nagoya Protocol implementation for Australia and New Zealand.

MAHC supports new international initiatives and manages the day to day running of programmes such as the Global Plants Initiative project imaging all vascular type specimens housed in Australasia. MAHC collaborates with CHAH and the data sub-committee, HISCOM (Herbarium Information Systems Committee), for continued improvements in sharing digital data and specimens via the Australasian Virtual Herbarium (AVH https://avh.chah.org.au/) and Atlas of Living Australia (ALA https://www.ala.org.au/) services.

This talk will use examples to highlight the effectiveness and success of a unified group in: developing standard practice in curation, incorporating improved curation procedures, and its ability to be agile, responding to incidents at an international level.
Current State of Collections Management Strategies, Standards and Procedures in the Entomology Department at the Durban Natural Science Museum, South Africa
Authors: Govender Natasha
Published: June 2018

The Durban Natural Science Museum (DNSM) is located in the city of Durban in KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa. Its entomology collection is one of three main collections at the museum. The collection consists of 141,000 dried specimens and encompasses 25 of the 29 known insect orders. Most of the specimens originate from South Africa however there is also a small percentage which has international origins. Collection growth is perpetuated by field collection trips and donations.

In the recent past, DNSM was afforded the opportunity, through the South African National Research Foundation (NRF) via the Natural History Collections (NHC) Funding Instrument, to digitise insect type specimens and move the entomology research database from Microsoft Access to the web-based data management system, Specify 7. These developments have improved accessibility to the collection especially by those who do not have direct contact and access to the collection.

In preparation for the migration to Specify 7, the specimen data was cleaned and standardised by means of an open source online tool, OpenRefine. The tool enabled the analysis and correction of data using an automated process which allowed for maximum productivity. Henceforth, we will ensure that the errors encountered during the data cleaning process will not be repeated. This will be achieved by training data capturers on correct formatting standards and using pick lists in the new database management system to foster consistency.

On-going collections care is a core component of the DNSM, however a collections management policy is lacking and therefore such procedures differ somewhat across the three core departments. With regards to the entomology department, temperature and humidity monitoring efforts and mould prevention, detection and collection recovery occur regularly. Durban is a coastal city, and the characteristic high humidity is of great concern because it facilitates mould development on the specimens. Regular monitoring procedures mitigate such outbreaks.

The DNSM has joined South Africa’s newly launched Natural Science Collections Facility (NSCF) which is a network of institutions which maintain zoological, botanical and paleontological collections. The NSCF, in consultation with institution representatives, has initiated the development of a collections management policy document which will be adopted by the DNSM as one of its sub-policies once it has been passed. The Durban Natural Science Museum will continue to strive for international best practises in collections management.
Image Recognition to Enhance the Value of Collections
Authors: Caspers Max
Published: June 2018

Techniques for image recognition through machine learning have advanced rapidly over recent years and applications using this technique are becoming increasingly common.. Applications using image recognition have enormous potential not only for research, education, conservation and capacity-building but certainly also for collections management. Perhaps by now an even bigger challenge than the technological one is supplying content in the form of large amounts of validated images. With an estimated 44 million objects, the collection of Naturalis Biodiversity Center has plenty of physical source material.

During a five-year digitization programme (2010–2015) at Naturalis, 4.4 million herbarium sheets were imaged and since the start of the “Butterflies in Bags” project, 50,000 papered butterflies (out of more than 500,000) have been digitized and photographed by volunteers in a standardized manner. Still there are large parts of our collection that are not digitized at specimen level, let alone imaged, but hold great potential for collections work. This poster presents a workflow for efficient scanning of insect drawers and automated segmentation of those images to “feed” deep learning-based image recognition with images of individual insects. It will also demonstrate how this will aid in enhancing the value of our collections.

With proper expert validation early on in the process, the software could mature and become more independent in such a way that ultimately, it could be used by non-specialist professionals to identify the majority of common species. The technique would pinpoint anomalies based on self-learned patterns, both in unidentified and in already identified specimens, and link those back to the taxonomic specialist. Not only does image recognition aid taxonomy, it may also hold potential for conservation and management by, for example, detecting damaged specimens or managing space utilization of drawers.
Pyrite Rehousing – Recent Case Studies at Two Australian Museums
Authors: Teare Sheldon , Measday Danielle
Published: June 2018

Two major collecting institutions in Australia, the Australian Museum (Sydney) and Museums Victoria (Melbourne), are currently undertaking large-scale anoxic rehousing projects in their collections to control conservation issues caused by pyrite oxidation. This paper will highlight the successes and challenges of the rehousing projects at both institutions, which have collaborated on developing strategies to mitigate loss to their collections.

In 2017, Museums Victoria Conservation undertook a survey with an Oxybaby M+ Gas Analyser to assess the oxygen levels in all their existing anoxic microclimates before launching a program to replace failed microclimates and expand the number of specimens housed in anoxic storage. This project included a literature review of current conservation materials and techniques associated with anoxic storage, and informed the selection of the RP System oxygen scavenger and Escal Neo barrier film from Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Company as the best-practice products to use for this application.

Conservation at the Australian Museum in Sydney was notified of wide-scale pyrite decay in the Palaeontology and Mineral collections. It was noted that many of the old high-barrier film enclosures, done more than ten years ago, were showing signs of failing. None of the Palaeontology specimens had ever been placed in microclimates.

After consultation with Museums Victoria and Collection staff, a similar pathway used by Museums Victoria was adopted. Because of the scale of the rehousing project, standardized custom boxes were made, making the construction of hundreds of boxes easier. It is hoped that new products, like the tube-style Escal film, will extend the life of this rehousing project. Enclosures are being tested at the Australian Museum with a digital oxygen meter.

Pyrite rehousing projects highlight the loss of Collection materials and data brought about by the inherent properties of some specimens. The steps undertaken to mitigate or reduce the levels of corrosion are linked to the preservation of both the specimens and the data kept with them (paper labels).

These projects benefited from the collaboration of Natural Sciences conservators in Australia with Geosciences collections staff. Natural Science is a relatively recent specialization for the Australian conservation profession and it is important to build resources and capacity for conservators to care for these collections. This applied knowledge has already been passed on to other regions in Australia.
Leveraging Collective Experience to Digitize the Fossil Insects of Los Angeles
Authors: Walker Lindsay , Krimmel Erica , Vendetti Jann , Hendy Austin
Published: June 2018

The Invertebrate Paleontology Collection at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (NHMLA) has received support from the United States National Science Foundation (NSF DBI 1702342) to digitize the museum’s unique and historic collection of 28,000+ fossil insects. The primary goal of this project, “Fossil Insects of L.A.”, is to increase access to these collections for both research and education. Key collections to be become discoverable through iDigBio and iDigPaleo include the Georg Statz Collection (Oligocene, Rott Formation, Germany) and three faunas from Southern California: Barstow (Miocene), Rancho La Brea (Pleistocene), and McKittrick (Pleistocene).

Fossil Insects of L.A. constitutes the final contribution to the Fossil Insect Collaborative Thematic Collections Network (TCN), a consortium of institutions that have been digitizing the largest fossil insect collections in the United States. As a project beginning at the tail-end of the TCN’s active funding, Fossil Insects of L.A. is actively leveraging existing TCN knowledge and resources to streamline workflows and efficiently achieve project goals. In addition to basing imaging and preservation protocols on those designed by TCN partners, Fossil Insects of L.A. is using a layered approach to provide high-quality taxonomic information without sacrificing the pace of specimen digitization. Previously unidentified specimens are initially identified only to Order, allowing them to quickly continue through the digitization process; specimens can then be re-examined by experienced project participants and external experts, who are able to reference the specimen images generated during digitization. A critical and novel aspect of this component of the project’s workflow is the concurrent digitization of the literature associated with the Statz Collection. These data will be used as a test case for the "Enhancing Paleontological and Neontological Data Discovery API" (ePANDDA) project (NSF ICER 1821039), which seeks to associate related datasets found in iDigBio, iDigPaleo, and the Paleobiology Database.

Fossil Insects of L.A. will digitize and make 10,960 specimens publically available online, of which over 6,200 will include images. An additional 15,684 specimen records from the Rancho La Brea Tar Pits will also be included in the data mobilization. In doing so, Fossil Insects of L.A. intends to dramatically enhance the research potential of these formerly hidden collections, as well as synthesize and demonstrate digitization best practices generated through the TCN.
Silcone-Based Solvents and Emulsions for Cleaning Natural Science Specimens: Case Studies from the Otago Museum and Museums Victoria.
Authors: Mildwaters Nyssa , Measday Danielle
Published: June 2018

Developed by the cosmetics industry, silicone-based solvents such as Cyclomethicone D4 and D5 and emulsifiers Velevsil Plus and KSG 350Z have found useful applications in museum conservation after being pioneered by Richard Wolbers to safety clean acrylic paint films. These products’ unique properties are also applicable for cleaning of natural science specimens. Silicone solvents are volatile and will completely evaporate away from surfaces. They have very low polarity and cannot not solubilise fats or oils, such as natural preen oils found in feathers. Low viscosity gives them the ability to flood a porous surface, such as bone, protecting it from absorbing chemicals and soiling during cleaning. Velevsil Plus and KSG 350Z provide the desirable ability to form an emulsion with water, and or solvents in a silicone based solvent carrier, allowing for the strictly controlled application of water or solvent solutions to the surface of a specimen.

This poster will present case studies from the Otago Museum (Dunedin, New Zealand) and Museums Victoria (Melbourne, Australia) investigating the use of these products in cleaning natural science specimens. The experiments include the removal of an aged wax and shellac coating from a Moa (Dinonris sp.) skeleton, the removal of acrylic coatings on extremely moisture sensitive pyritized fossils, and the cleaning of soiled feathers and fur.

Issues around sourcing and shipping these specialised products to Australasia will also be discussed. The successful application of paintings conservation techniques to scientific specimens demonstrates the benefits of collaboration between specialisations in conservation for developing new techniques for caring for our collections.
Repatriation of Augmented Information to an Institutional Database
Authors: Grant Sharon , Jones Janeen , Webbink Kate , Zschernitz Rob
Published: June 2018

On the 9th of April 2010 the Field Museum received a momentous email from the ORNIS (ORnithology Network Information System) team informing them that they could now access the products of a nationwide georeferencing project; its bird collection could be, quite literally, put on the map.

On the 7th of August 2017 those data (along with the sister datasets from FISHNet (FISH NETwork) and MaNIS (Mammal Network Information System) finally made their way into the Museum’s collection management system.

It's easy to get data out, why is it so hard to get it back? To make it easier, what do we need to do in terms of coordination, staffing, and/or technological resources? How can tools like data quality flags better accommodate the needs of data-providers as well as data-users elsewhere along the collections data pipeline?

We present a real life case studyof repatriating an enhanced dataset to its institute of origin, including details on timelines, estimates of effort, and lessons learned. The best laid repatriation protocols might not prepare us for everything, but following them more closely might save us some sanity.
An Integrative Approach to Rehousing the Herpetology Collection
Authors: Date Katie
Published: June 2018

Museums Victoria stores close to 80,000 herpetological specimens in its wet collection. A large proportion of these specimens were housed in Fowlers Vacola jars, which had degrading rubber seals on them, leading to ethanol loss in many of the jars and potential specimen degradation. Along with this, the collection was also in drastic need of taxonomic updating, new labelling and an inventory of the specimens. I developed a procedure for volunteers to work through to complete all of these steps in the one project. This included replacing jars with new 2 L screw-top jars with plastic seals, topping up ethanol and updating labels where required. Taxonomy was also revised, both on our electronic database and reflected in the physical storage of the specimens in the collection. There are many benefits to this project – staff and visitors can now locate the specimens more easily, taxonomy is more accurate, all specimens have been visually inspected, degradation of specimens has been minimised and we have a new baseline inventory of all specimens. This has already been extremely valuable during a recent large-scale audit of the collection. Our next step will be to barcode all of these specimens, so that effective location control will occur from this point forward.
Join the Dots: assessing 80 million items at the Natural History Museum, London
Authors: Wilson Scott , Russell Douglas , Miller Giles , Carine Mark , Valentine Clare , Loader Simon , Woodburn Matt , Vincent Sarah , Stevens Lil , Thompson Katie , Smith David , Price Ben , Heath Tracy
Published: June 2018

Collection needs are a challenge to communicate. Collection staff know the attributes of their collections, but other museum colleagues may not. In collections management, decisions of resource allocation may be made locally, rather than within the context of a larger organisational and strategic framework. The Natural History Museum (NHM), like any of its counterparts, has finite resources to realize its dual role as a centre for research excellence and public engagement in natural history. As such, capturing and communicating collection qualities and needs is essential for effective resource planning across the Museum. Effective museum planning depends upon a variety of factors - not least a clear, holistic understanding of the collections that is not just limited to item condition, but which also takes into account their significance and information value. However, many of these factors can be hard to measure or quantify.

The NHM has implemented a transformative institution-wide collections management project, 'Join the Dots', adapted from a Smithsonian methodology called 'Move the Dots'. This methodology captures the qualities of 80 million items and integrates them with practical and expansive data architecture. Collections are scored across 16 criteria, coordinated by: Condition, Importance, Information and Outreach. The NHM methodology deviates from the Smithsonian source in four significant ways: 1) allowing collection staff to separate collections into discrete 'collection units' and diversifying unit definitions, so data better reflects the practical working arrangement of any collection; 2) criteria have been edited, removed, and added to reduce subjective reportage; 3) a manual has been produced to establish standards across disciplines; 4) comparative analysis is made possible via a web - based tool, through which users can correlate collections data on an interactive graphical display that presents information at levels of overview and at fine granularity. These consistent frameworks move collections assessment from a subjective practice to an objective one.

This methodology continues to adapt based on feedback from staff, initial attempts to interpret the data, and practice. All internal stakeholders can access Join the Dots. Where priority projects are clear, these will become focal points of collection staff forward job plans. This equips collections staff with a tool to communicate collection needs, whilst also ensuring museum planners can articulate the state of collections with precision when presenting to trustees or other high - level audiences. As such, Join the Dots integrates the needs of curatorial practice with the needs of strategic development and policy.
Osteo Preparation Lab: Preserving the Smithsonian Tradition of Collections Access and Collections-based Research
Authors: Haigler Daniella
Published: June 2018

The National Museum of Natural History is committed to long-term stewardship of collections and to supporting their use by scientists and the general public. Smithsonian’s Osteo Preparation Lab (OPL), in particular, maintains a long-standing tradition of collections access and collections-based research. This tradition of preparing and cataloging osteological specimens traces its origin to the beginning of the Smithsonian Institution itself. In the mid 1800's, James Smithson's legacy called for an Institution with a mission to pursue the “increase and diffusion of knowledge.” Under Spencer Baird, that mission later evolved into a system called collections-based research. This system involved preparing and curating animal specimens for scientific research, which was particularly important for the emerging field of comparative anatomy of vertebrate skeletons.

Today, OPL staff work to catalogue and document vertebrate specimens, which contributes greatly to continuing the historic tradition of collections-based research done at Smithsonian Institution. The preparation and curation procedures of vertebrate specimens relies on the commitment of the OPL staff, as well as the use of dermestid colonies, composting, and other maceration techniques. The lab’s sizeable space and state of the art necropsy equipment for large animal dissections are used on a regular basis by visiting scientists studying vertebrate anatomy. Additionally, the OPL is integrally involved in tissue collection from animal remains, which are held by the museum for research purposes in both collections spaces at the museum and our unique biorepository at the museum support center (MSC). In terms of collections access, the osteology specimens in the museum’s research collections draw scientists from around the world. The research done on the specimens has resulted in many intriguing discoveries.

In terms of public engagement and access, the Smithsonian Institution can boast maintaining a three hundred year old exhibition on vertebrate osteology, which began in 1881. The “Osteology: Hall of Bones” provides visitors with an opportunity to examine the skeletons of a vast array of vertebrate species, ranging from minute birds to giant mammals. The display, while mirroring the selection of species found in the original exhibit from the nineteenth century, enhances the user experience through the integration of modern technologies, like the app “Skin and Bones.” And so, despite the rather unpleasant smell and macabre nature of the work, the Osteo Prep Lab's activities are integral to both the public outreach and research activities of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History.
Revitalization of the University of Iowa's Bird Egg Collection after 100 Years of Dormancy
Authors: Crawford Cody , Opitz Cindy , Roberts Trina
Published: June 2018

The University of Iowa Museum of Natural History's egg collection spans many avian orders, 6 continents, and over 160 years. However, this collection of approximately 17,000 egg specimens has remained disorganized and underutilized for most of its history. Only in 2017 did the museum begin taking significant steps toward organizing the eggs, cataloging them, and making them and their data available for researchers. Like many museum egg collections, ours is composed mostly of donated private collections originally collected, purchased, or traded between 1870 and 1910, and with variable amounts of data associated with individual specimens. Since the time the eggs were collected, most of them have been separated from the cards on which collectors stored their data.

Much of the current project revolves around reuniting eggs and data cards. We have scanned over 2,000 egg cards, crowdsourced transcriptions of the handwriting, verified the accuracy of each transcription, and added the scans and transcriptions to our database for easy access by museum staff and volunteers. We are using the egg cards, any data written on the eggs, and many books and websites to match eggs with egg cards and integrate the data into our database. The eggs are then placed in new cabinets and relabelled with newly generated database information. Each egg set will be photographed and georeferenced if possible, using the GEOLocate web application. At the end of this project, these specimen records will be integrated into biodiversity repositories such as GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility), Integrated Digitized Biocollections (iDigBio), and VertNet, so they can be downloaded and used by researchers globally, as our bird, mammal and insect collections already are. Most of the work is carried out by a team of volunteers and interns, usually undergraduate students, without whom this project would not be possible at its current pace.
Think of Me When I Am Gone: Assessing Faculty Archives at the Yale Peabody Museum
Authors: White Maureen
Published: June 2018

For universities with museums and galleries, the inevitability of faculty retirements, departures, and passings is a challenge for collection managers. The preservation and retrieval of archival field records and research is critical to the documentation of museum collections. Unfortunately, there are no expectations for faculty members to donate their personal papers to the museums which curate their collections. The potential to lose essential data, such as provenance information, stresses the importance of tackling these problems early. All too often, decisions about retention of these materials are made by uninformed academic departments or family heirs, and these decisions can be detrimental to the future value of museum collections. The best solution is to be proactive and work with the professor or researcher and academic departments before they are gone.

The Harold C. and Jean M. Conklin Archives at the Yale Peabody Museum will be used as a case study to illustrate the efforts necessary by an institution to preserve vital supporting documentation to its collections. Conklin was a Professor of Anthropology at Yale, a Curator at the Peabody, and a researcher in the field of Southeast Asian studies for over six decades.
Collections Management During a Major Move
Authors: Stephenson Jeffrey
Published: June 2018

The Denver Museum of Nature & Science (DMNS) embarked on a project to plan, build, and move into a new collections storage facility for its 4.3 million objects. The DMNS Zoology Collections, numbering over 1.25 specimens and specimen lots, chose to stay open for accessions, loans, visiting researchers, and outreach during the entire process, including the recent move phase of the project rather than "go dark" for an extended time. We will discuss the pros and cons of this decision, challenges for staff and volunteers, and other decisions we had to make along the way. This option may not work for all collections during major moves, but some major benefits to the collection's standing, communication, and outreach were noted and the process went as smoothly as could be desired, even with the occasional unexpected glitches in delivery and installation of storage equipment occurred.
Fibres in Meise Botanic Garden: A Future for Heritage Collections?
Authors: Leyman Viviane , Stoffelen Piet , De Smedt Sofie , Bogaerts Ann
Published: June 2018

The precious historical collection of fibres in Meise Botanic Garden, with over 500 specimens in old hand-blown glass jars, was rehabilitated in 2017. Most of the specimens date back to the second half of the 19th century, a period of technological revolution. The rehabilitation retraces the industrious search for every possible raw material provided by nature at that time. The result is astonishing, not only regarding the origin and quality of the preserved material, its label information and its accompanying manuscripts, but also because of the extremely wide range of fibre species and their processing.

Noted collectors enriching our collections were, inter alios, the Josephite Brother Bernardin of Melle (Belgium), Carl von Martius and his brother Theodor Martius of Erlangen (Germany) and Henri Van Heurck of Antwerp (Belgium). Famous museums and botanic gardens such as the Museum of French Colonies in Paris (France) and the Experimental Garden in Eala (Democratic Republic of the Congo DRC) were also important suppliers. Samples originate from all over the world with strong representation from India, the DRC and Brazil.

The nature of the fibres in the collection is very diverse and ranges from stem, bark and leaf fibres to husk fibres and seed hairs. Some of them have been processed into bundles and braids, beaten bark, spun thread and twined rope, as well as rough or organza-like fabrics. Even plant pith, pulp and paper are included, next to silkworm silk and mineral tremolite (a form of asbestos).

Not only are familiar plant fibres such as cotton, sisal, ramie, coir, flax and jute present, but also Congo jute, Cuban bast, lacebark, piassava, esparto, fern wool, fibres of linden, sunflower, banana and pineapple, next to different types of paper and bark cloth. More than a hundred genera appear. Dominant families in terms of specimen numbers are Malvaceae (including Tiliaceae), Liliaceae (including Agavaceae), Palmae, Urticaceae, Bombacaceae, Musaceae and Gramineae.

This upgraded collection exhibits an unexpected data diversity and consequently offers multitudinous possibilities for innovative research. One of our mission statements is undoubtedly: safeguarding historical collections for the future.
Little-known Dangers to Natural History Collections: Bynesian Decay and Pyrite Decay
Authors: Salvador Rodrigo , Cavallari Daniel
Published: June 2018

The deterioration of specimens in natural history collections is a major concern of curators. Collections containing carbonatic specimens (e.g., molluscs, corals, fossils) are of special concern, since calcium carbonate (CaCO3) can deteriorate in the presence of acidic vapours. There are two main types of danger related to these volatile acids, called Bynesian decay and pyrite decay.

In Bynesian decay, acetic and formic acids are released by storage materials (e.g., wood, varnishes, cardboard). If the collection is not under adequate conditions and presents high relative humidity and temperature, the acids react with the specimens’ carbonate, yielding salts and carbon dioxide. The tell-tale “symptom” of an affected specimen is a thin white granular layer of efflorescing salts. Pyrite decay is somewhat similar, but restricted to fossils that contain the mineral pyrite (FeS2). In high relative humidity, pyrite is oxidised, yielding sulfuric acid, which can in turn corrode carbonatic specimens lodged in the same drawer or cabinet.

The corrosion damage caused is irreversible, of course, but the affected specimens might be partially salvaged via specific cleaning and treating procedures. Nevertheless, it is better to just avoid the problem altogether by keeping the collection facilities in adequate conditions. It is hard to come up with a single solution for all the problems any given collection might face, but some measures are reasonably universal. First and foremost, one should strive to maintain a low relative humidity (45–50%) and an appropriate temperature range (16–21ºC). This can be achieved, for instance, with HVAC systems and the use of common desiccant materials such as silica gel. Conditions within the collection should be monitored via the combined use of hygrometer, thermometer, and pH indicators. Furthermore, archival quality materials should be used as often as possible, such as steel drawers and cabinets with electrostatic coating, and acid-free paper and cardboard. Finally, specimens containing reactive pyrite must be kept isolated in archival quality plastic (e.g., mylar) or glass containers.
Label Transcript is Done – Now what do we do with that Data?
Authors: Cubey Robert , Haston Elspeth , King Sally
Published: June 2018

The transcription of natural history collection labels is occurring via a variety of different methods – in-house curators, commercial operations, citizen scientists, visiting researchers, linked data, optical character recognition (OCR), handwritten text recognition (HTR), etc., but what can a collections data manager do with this flood of data? There are a whole raft of questions around this incoming data stream - who values it, who needs it, where is it stored, where is it displayed, who has access to it, etc. This talk plans to address these topics with reference to the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh herbarium dataset.
Syrie 2018 : une tragédie sans fin ?
Authors: Bauchard Denis
Published: June 2018

La crise syrienne nécessite une solution politique qui tienne compte des réalités et des rapports de force : elle passe par des négociations qui ne peuvent être qu’inclusives, c’est-à-dire qui rassemblent toutes les parties concernées. Mais elle ne pourra se régler sans une approche globale de l’ensemble des problèmes du Moyen-Orient, où s’affrontent ouvertement l’Arabie séoudite et l’Iran et où la menace terroriste demeure forte.
Logiques et aboutissements des recompositions géopolitiques
Authors: Mikaïl Barah
Published: June 2018

Malgré sept ans de conflit qui ont détruit la Syrie, le pouvoir en place reste intact. Les équations géopolitiques régionales et internationales ont évolué, quant à elles, d’une façon qui s’avère plus favorable aux alliés traditionnels de la Syrie qu’aux ennemis du président Bachar Al Assad.
Syrie : la France peut-elle revenir dans le jeu ?
Authors: Pichon Frédéric
Published: June 2018

Les récentes frappes effectuées en Syrie par la France, conjointement avec les États-Unis et e Royaume-Uni, ont été perçues de différentes façons. Pour le président Macron, il s’agit d’une nette volonté de revenir dans le jeu syrien. Au-delà des aspects techniques, il s’agit de s’interroger sur l’articulation du militaire et du politique pour la France. N’est-il pas trop tard ?
« La grande majorité des Syriens soutient Bachar »
Authors: Pichon Frédéric , Soussan Ayman
Published: June 2018

Le vice-ministre des Affaires étrangères syrien Ayman Sousan livre sa vision du conflit et les pistes d’une stabilisation politique et économique de la Syrie de demain. Le constat est sévère envers l’Occident : d’après lui, la Syrie a été victime d’un complot et il n’y aura d’autre solution politique – ni fédéralisme, ni dialogue avec des opposants payés par des puissances hostiles – que dans le cadre national.
Enjeux et acteurs de la reconstruction en Syrie
Authors: Pichon Frédéric
Published: June 2018

Financer la reconstruction du pays par un « plan Marshall » reviendrait à reconnaitre de facto la victoire de quasiment tous ceux qui s’opposent au camp occidental dans la région : Russie, Iran et même Chine. Comme souvent dans ce genre de situations post-guerre, le financement de la reconstruction, évalué à près de 300 milliards de dollars par la Banque mondiale, reste subordonné à des enjeux politiques.