Join the Dots: assessing a collection of 80 million items at The Natural History Museum, London

Miller, C. Giles; Brewer, Philippa; Carine, Mark A.; Comerford, Gill; Hardy, Helen; Hart, Andrea Y.; Long, Sarah L.; Price, Benjamin W.; Smith, C. L.; Smith, David A.; Smith, Mel; Stevens, Lil; Thompson, Katie; Valentine, Clare; Vincent, Sarah; Wilson, Scott D.; Woodburn, Matt

doi:10.1080/09647775.2021.2023900

Cited by 3 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…Collection profiling is a useful tool for evaluating the health of any natural history collection (Williams et al 1996, Favret et al 2007, Miller et al 2022, especially for setting priorities. For example, the 1999 assessment of Hymenoptera revealed that a large proportion of specimens were inaccessible (40%).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Taxonomic collections are a critical resource to enable scientists and researchers to address global issues including climate change, biosecurity and conservation (Thiers et al 2021). Several comprehensive reviews have recently provided frameworks and pathways for how taxonomic collections can play increasing roles in science, education and society, but also provide arguments for continued funding to support underlying infrastructure and the critical activities of collections (Lendemer et al 2019, Thiers et al 2021, Miller et al 2022. However, the resources available within taxonomic collections seldom match wider expectations from the scientific community, end users and funding agencies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To make the best use of their limited resources, taxonomic collections need to prioritise their activities, particularly planning for the ongoing care and maintenance of holdings and for greater access and use (McGinley 1993, Miller et al 2022. McGinley (1993) introduced the concept of a Collection Health Index (CHI) for entomology collections.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Using a Collection Heath Index to prioritise access and activities in the New Zealand Arthropod Collection

Ward¹,

Малышева²

2022

RIO

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A Collection Health Index (CHI) is a useful approach to help scope new activities, prioritise curation and accelerate digitisation within taxonomic collections. We use a Collection Health Index (CHI), based on McGinley (1993), to profile the curation levels in the New Zealand Arthropod Collection for major insect groups. There are several highly curated and well known groups (Hemiptera, Lepidoptera, ‘Other Insects’). However, three major issues were identified: 1) curation becoming increasingly outdated in sections with large numbers of, particularly older, specimens (Coleoptera, Diptera); 2) historically poorer curation, with no resident expertise or resource (Diptera); and 3) high levels of family and genus-only material that needs further identification and a significant amount of alpha level taxonomy (parts of Coleoptera, parts of Diptera and Hymenoptera). Assessment using the CHI is simple and fast, allows future planning and is based on common issues for collection management, such as care, accessibility, organisation and data capture.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Using a Collection Heath Index to prioritise access and activities in the New Zealand Arthropod Collection

Ward¹,

Малышева²

2022

RIO

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“… 7. Reed (2018), Häyhä et al (2019), Versloot (2014), Falkenberg and Jander (2018), CyMAL (2013), Furthermore, a number of projects focusing on defining significance have been undertaken – for example De la Torre (2002), Racine et al (2009) and Miller et al (2022). …”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“… 26. For example Racine et al (2009), Frensley et al (2017), Eitzel et al (2017), Vohland et al (2021), Eleta et al (2019), Oswald (2020), Miller et al (2022). …”

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confidence: 99%

Significance Assessment as Citizen Science: A Collaborative Methodology for Developing the Significance of Our Collections?

Jensen

Hansen

Funder

2023

Collections: A Journal for Museum and Archives Professionals

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Over the last few decades, the concepts of significance, contextuality and polysemy in museum collections have been repeatedly discussed within the international museum field. In this article, we develop and discuss a methodology for operationalizing these concepts in practical collection work. By collaborating with different communities in assigning meaning to collections, we combine the significance assessment of museum collections with citizen science. Through a number of experiments, we explore collaborations between museums and different communities and find that significance assessment as citizen science adds new perspectives to and creates co-ownership of museum collections and thereby democratizes the museums as public institutions.

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Strengthening Partnerships to Safeguard the Future of Herbaria

Thiers

2024

Diversity

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Herbaria remain the primary means of documenting plant life on earth, and the number of herbaria worldwide and the number of specimens they hold continues to grow. Digitization of herbarium specimens, though far from complete, has increased the discoverability of herbarium holdings and has increased the range of studies from which data from herbarium specimens can be used. The rather large number of herbaria about which no current information is available is a source of concern, as is herbarium consolidation and removal of herbaria to offsite storage facilities. Partnerships are key to the future health of herbaria. Benefits could accrue from the reimagining of the world’s herbaria as a global resource rather than a collection of independent, often competing institutions. Herbaria can extend the reach of their specimens by joining the nascent effort to link the species occurrence data they manage to other biological and environmental data sources to deepen our ability to understand the interrelationships of earth’s biota. To assure that data held by herbaria contribute to the range of conservation-related projects for which they are relevant, herbaria should embrace the tenets of Team Science and play a more proactive role in promoting their holdings for relevant research and conservation projects.

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Join the Dots: assessing a collection of 80 million items at The Natural History Museum, London

Cited by 3 publications

References 2 publications

Using a Collection Heath Index to prioritise access and activities in the New Zealand Arthropod Collection

Using a Collection Heath Index to prioritise access and activities in the New Zealand Arthropod Collection

Significance Assessment as Citizen Science: A Collaborative Methodology for Developing the Significance of Our Collections?

Strengthening Partnerships to Safeguard the Future of Herbaria

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