[NHCOLL-L:2159] Re: threatened university collections

[Thomas E. Labedz]

Steve and other concerned museum people,
    My colleague gave you a run down of the situation here at Nebraska.  I'll try to fill you in a little about the Arkansas collection.  I had been working with Dr. Nancy McCartney (Curator of Zoology and Education Coordinator) at the University Museum at the University of Arkansas - Fayetteville
(UAF) on cleaning small mammal skulls for their collections when the Nebraska budget cuts hit.  It appears UAF took clues from Nebraska and in June cut the entire museum program at UAF.  The museum was celebrating its130th anniversary when the cuts came.
    Dr. McCartney and I were in contact during the intervening months, but I'll skip ahead and let her or others to fill in the details of what happened at UAF.  The UAF museum was scheduled to close permanently October 31st.  The last week of October I took my family to Fayetteville to see the museum,
examine the collections, and offer my support to the staff there.  We toured the exhibits with one of the final school groups to go through.  One little boy was so excited about seeing the skeletal mount of a triceratops that he blurted out to my wife that he couldn't wait for his little brother, who
loves dinosaurs, to be old enough to go to school and come see this.   My wife couldn't tell the kid that his brother will likely have to go elsewhere for that experience.  The entire class was told in the group wrap-up that the museum was being closed.
    Detailed plans for the dismantling of the exhibits and placement of the material owned by UAF were being discussed.  Non-UAF material would likely be returned.  The large meteor that is not owned by UAF might go elsewhere on campus.
    The main collections are now housed on the ag campus north of the main campus.  Dr. McCartney graciously gave me a tour of the facility.  The facility is primarily supports the collections of the Arkansas Archaeological Survey and is one of the finest collection facilities I've ever seen for a
collection of that size.  The specimens are not in any immediate physical danger and are secure.  The Curator of Collections, Mary Sutter, really knows her stuff and is on soft money until next year.  The Collections Manager, Jane-Ellen Murphy, is also a quality museum person and is on soft money but
is looking for other opportunities.  It is my understanding that UAF is beginning to understand the commitment necessary to these collections and it is hoped that one or both of the positions, Curator of Collections and Collections Manager, will be retained permanently to care for the collections.
    I will be happy to discuss the Nebraska or Arkansas situations with anyone but I strongly suggest efforts be made to contact the Arkansas people directly for first hand and more current information.
    From what I saw the entire museum community can be very proud of the professionalism showed by the staff at the UAF University Museum during what was their final days.  And I want to extend my thanks to all of you who wrote in support of the program at Nebraska, and elsewhere.
    Thomas E. Labedz,  Collections Manager
    Division of Zoology and Division of Botany
    University of Nebraska State Museum
    W-436 Nebraska Hall
    Lincoln, NE  68588-0514
        402/472-8366   fax 402/472-8949
        tlabedz1 at unl.edu    www-museum.unl.edu

Steven Heydon wrote:

> Does anybody have an update on what actually happened to the threatened collections at Nebraska, Arkansas, etc. There was a lot of chatter when the cuts at these institutions were proposed, but I have not heard whether we or the staff members there were able to do any good and rescue these programs.
>
> Steven L. Heydon, Ph.D.
> R. M. Bohart Museum of Entomology
> Department of Entomology
> University of California
> Davis CA 95616
>
> Phone 530 752?0493
> FAX 530 752?9464
> e?mail slheydon at ucdavis.edu