<div dir="ltr">Hi Kirsten,<div><br></div><div>I am happy to hear that NSF is pushing for more rigorous accountability for curating university collections. When I was in graduate school a few years ago they had just come out with that requirement but it was not yet being enforced. </div><div><br></div><div>At the same time, I was developing a database specifically for geological specimens called EGEMS, in hopes that institutions that could not afford the larger, more complex, and much more expensive, systems would now have a tool at their disposal. I had hopes this would spread quickly as a solution to a growing problem. </div><div><br></div><div>Unfortunately due to the priorities set long ago, specimens in universities are not typically seen as collections that need to be maintained and so emphasis, funding, and evaluation goes to other priorities such as research. I found this funny because without the specimens we wouldn't have all that wonderful research! </div><div><br></div><div>In the summer of 2014 I wrote a proposal on this subject of priorities, it was an open document that was collaboratively written and then signed by over 100 members of the geological community representing museums, universities, companies, societies, worldwide. It was presented by the Director of the Museum of Geosciences at Virginia Tech and my previous adviser, Dr. Robert Tracy. It had great response! GSA felt it "hit the nail on the head" and was certainly an avenue they wanted to support and explore. </div><div><br></div><div>Other endeavors such as NSF funded EarthCube and more specifically iSamples <a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__earthcube.org_group_isamples&d=AwMFaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=ozobh8Lkza3cfKiGpGv6ICRPJp_zu_5zaExhg8JA_lo&s=kxIM9eK47_DO6va4BcDP7ijSEcBnaEe2uyA7PPg4Cfo&e=" target="_blank">http://earthcube.org/group/isamples</a> are working in support of this problem as well and many web based groups such as the Small Collections Network (SCNet) <a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__scnet.acis.ufl.edu_content_about-2Dscnet&d=AwMFaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=ozobh8Lkza3cfKiGpGv6ICRPJp_zu_5zaExhg8JA_lo&s=8mNh_yFXrMrFmHcgJoGMKKiH1qliYM5p16MO9VQ6l3k&e=" target="_blank">http://scnet.acis.ufl.edu/content/about-scnet</a> an initiative headed by iDigBio.</div><div><br></div><div>As for EGEMS, it was being commercially sold but now that I have moved and taken a position at a museum that is bound to another system I closed that company and now offer it as a free, non-commercial software, to anyone who would like it. It's a good system and a nice video that shows it's capabilities can be found here: <a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.youtube.com_watch-3Fv-3DPuKI2WH2z78&d=AwMFaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=ozobh8Lkza3cfKiGpGv6ICRPJp_zu_5zaExhg8JA_lo&s=ppj0wVg3Qv-KZoEPqPb17AYqxIioD7kvKxytjVSSecY&e=" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuKI2WH2z78</a> I'd be happy to send you, and anyone else who would like, a copy of the EGEMS database. I just need to know if you are using a Mac or PC and I can send the appropriate file. </div><div><br></div><div>As for your question regarding charging for repositorying. At Tellus Science Museum, where I am now curator, we do not charge anything for donations. I think that would get complicated because many of our donors use the value of the specimens donated as a tax write off. Hopefully, if NSF follows through, there will be funding coming from the top down in the next years to support these curatorial endeavors, and it won't become necessary to charge for donations. </div><div><br></div><div>We are however considering charging a fee for identification of large collections and especially for gemstones, as it can be very time consuming on our part. GIA does not want people who are GIA certified to do site ID, they have a step by step ID process that they ask us to follow.<b> I'd like to know if other institutions have gone down this route, of charging for identification that takes longer than say 1 hr of time? </b>I can send a separate email for this but thought since it was on the topic of institutions charging for services that up until now have not been, that I would add it in here!</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Thank you,</div><div>~Sarah</div><div><br></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Oct 30, 2015 at 8:55 AM, Kirsten Nicholson <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:norops@gmail.com" target="_blank">norops@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr">My museum is looking to change its policies in light of changes coming down the pipe from NSF. As I understand things, currently NSF funded projects require a "data management plan" which is variously implemented by investigators, but part of which is a requirement to deposit their specimens and data somewhere that can be publicly accessed. Coming down the pipe (I hear in the next year) are more rigorous requirements for the deposition of the specimens (must be a curated collection) and they will allow/require (not clear on this part) lines of funding to be included that will offset the costs of curating all of these new collections. <div><br></div><div>Right now, like most places, we charge nothing for acquisitions, but we're also pretty much out of space, there are those in the university who do not see our value and thus our budget has plummeted, and yet we're trying to push forward to acquire more space and or a new building. Our director got excited about these new changes coming down the pipe so that we can charge to help us offset the costs of curating, but he's wanting to push this point NOW with researchers here on campus. I fear that doing so will just encourage them to deposit their specimens in other museums and not ours because it'll cost them nothing to do so.</div><div><br></div><div>So I'm wondering if anybody out there is already charging and if so, how much, and how many museums are doing this or preparing to do this?</div><div><br></div><div>Thanks for any thoughts you have,</div><div><br></div><div>Kirsten <span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div><font face="'times new roman', serif" style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)" color="#006600">Kirsten E. Nicholson, <span>Ph</span>.D<br><br><i><font size="1">Assoc. Prof. Biology and Curator of Natural History<br>Dept. of Biology Museum of Cultural and Natural History<br>217 Brooks Hall 103 Rowe Hall<br>Central Michigan Univ. Central Michigan University <br>Mt. Pleasant, MI 48859 Mt. Pleasant, MI 48859<br><a href="tel:989-774-3758" value="+19897743758" target="_blank">989-774-3758</a> <a href="tel:989-774-3829" value="+19897743829" target="_blank">989-774-3829</a></font></i></font><i><font size="1"><span style="background-color:rgb(0,0,0)"><font color="#336666" face="'times new roman', serif"><b><br></b></font><br></span><br></font></i><br><br><br><br><br><br></div>
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<br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><font size="4" style="font-family:arial;color:rgb(102,51,102)"><b><span style="font-family:georgia,serif"><font color="#330033">Sarah Timm</font> </span></b></font><br style="font-family:arial;font-size:small"><span style="font-size:small;font-family:georgia,serif"><p style="margin:0in 0in 7.5pt"><i><span style="font-family:Garamond,serif;font-size:13.5pt">Tellus Science Museum Curator<br><a href="mailto:sarahtimm26@gmail.com" target="_blank">sarahtimm26@gmail.com</a><br></span></i><i><span style="font-family:Garamond,serif;font-size:13.5pt">845-774-9994</span></i></p></span></div></div>
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