FutureProofing Resources

Websites

The Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections

An international organization dedicated to the preservation, conservation, and management of natural history collections. Contains resources for a variety of collections on best practices, digitization, and skills trainings, among others.

American Alliance of Museums 

A professional network of a variety of museums dedicated to advocating for museums, developing best practices, and providing volunteer and professional development opportunities. Their site contains a number of resources from articles on different aspects of museum management, to events and trainings.

Publications

Are natural history collections coming to an end as time-series?

Gardner, Janet L, et al. “Are Natural History Collections Coming to an End as Time-Series?” Frontiers in Ecology, 1 Oct. 2014, pp. 436–438.

Assessing the Value of Natural History Collections and Addressing Issues Regarding Long-Term Growth and Care

Bradley, Robert D., et al. “Assessing the Value of Natural History Collections and Addressing Issues Regarding Long-Term Growth and Care.” BioScience, vol. 64, no. 12, 2014, pp. 1150–1158.

Climate Change and Biosphere Response: Unlocking the Collections Vault

Johnson, Kenneth G., et al. “Climate Change and Biosphere Response: Unlocking the Collections Vault.” BioScience, vol. 61, no. 2, 2011, pp. 147–153., doi:10.1525/bio.2011.61.2.10.

FutureProofing Museum Business Plans: Creating sustainable models for natural history research collections

Merritt, Elizabeth. “FutureProofing Museum Business Plans: Creating Sustainable Models for Natural History Research Collections.” Museum, 2017, aam-us.org.

FutureProofing Natural History Collections: Creating Sustainable Models for Research Resources

Norris, Chris. “FutureProofing Natural History Collections: Creating Sustainable Models for Research Resources. A Report on a Workshop Held at the Yale Peabody Museum, December 13-15, 2016.” SPNHC Connection, Mar. 2017, spnhc.org.

Natural History Collections as Emerging Resources for Innovative Education

Cook, Joseph A., et al. “Natural History Collections as Emerging Resources for Innovative Education.” BioScience, vol. 64, no. 8, 2014, pp. 725–734., doi:10.1093/biosci/biu096.

Natural History Museums in a Postbiodiversity Era

Winker, Kevin. “Natural History Museums in a Postdiversity Era.” BioScience, May 2004, www.aibs.org.

The Value of Museum Collections for Research and Society

Suarez, Andrew V., and Neil D. Tsutsui. “The Value of Museum Collections for Research and Society.” BioScience, vol. 54, no. 1, Jan. 2004, p. 66-74.

Valuing Collections

Kress, W. John. “Valuing Collections.” Science, 12 Dec. 2014, pp. 1310–1310.