[NHCOLL-L:1906] RE: FW: Re: Threatened Collections

Mon Apr 21 13:27:44 EDT 2003

RE: [NHCOLL-L:1898] Re: Threatened CollectionsApril 21, 2003

You can help the Natural Science Collections Alliance develop a proactive
tool -- and one that will work "locally" in your efforts to instruct
university administrators, legislators and others better understand the
value of your collections and knowledge base.

The Alliance is creating a "web gallery" on our web site with stories of how
collections (as well as systematics/taxonomic experts) make a difference to
science and society. We have mailed the request three times to our members
(through CEOS and NSC representatives) in the past 8 months, as well as
making this request online and in our newsletter. We have received about 15
stories.

You can help us to help you by sending to the NSC Alliance abstracts of
"success stories" from the use of your collections. To learn about how easy
it is to contribute to our web gallery go to:

http://www.nscalliance.org/Dinos_DNA/involved.asp

We will be rolling out the gallery this summer -- provided that our members,
and friends of the community, help us by writing up brief "stories and
giving us access to some good visuals.

We would encourage you to develop youra gallery on your own web site (e.g.
USDA ARS did just that!) that outlines how your collections are being used
to solve real-world problems. If you need advice or assistance, please feel
free to contact our communications manager Andrea Schmidt at:
communications at nscalliance.org

Bobbie

Roberta Faul-Zeitler
Executive Director
Natural Science Collections Alliance
1725 K Street NW, Suite 601
Washington DC 20006
Tel. (202) 835-9050
FAX (202) 835-7334
Email: faulzeitler at nscalliance.org

  -----Original Message-----
  From: owner-nhcoll-l at lists.yale.edu
[mailto:owner-nhcoll-l at lists.yale.edu]On Behalf Of Elaine Hoagland
  Sent: Monday, April 21, 2003 11:00 AM
  To: NHCOLL-L at lists.yale.edu
  Cc: qwheeler at nsf.gov
  Subject: [NHCOLL-L:1905] FW: Re: Threatened Collections

  I had answered Brent off-list yesterday; he asked me to repost to the list
as he is having trouble doing so.  I'll add my best wishes to the whole
group, and will re-iterate Brent and Bobbi's suggestion that you use the
time available at the upcoming nscalliance meeting to develop plans to
address these issues.  So many of the conversations on the web this past
week or so have been "deja vu all over again" for me, down to comments from
one of you that we should get TNC to help us!  I hope that some old hands
will be at the meeting to keep you'all from reinventing wheels, or spinning
them.

  One thing I've learned at my present position with the Council on
Undergraduate Research is to structure meetings so that participants can
actually take home a personal plan to deal with a national issue on a local
(e.g., campus) level.  I feel that this would help in your quest to use the
national PR materials that the Alliance has developed, as well as other
national material (including the SA 2000 document and ancillary reports).
Brent's and my emphasis on local action/politicking is apropos here.  You
can't just tell policymakers why collections are important, you have to SHOW
them, and do this by your own deeds and productivity as well as the broader
data.  Make yourselves indispensable.  I know you and the collections are.

  Elaine

  -----Original Message-----
  From: Brent Mishler [mailto:bmishler at socrates.Berkeley.EDU]
  Sent: Sunday, April 20, 2003 4:58 PM
  To: Elaine Hoagland
  Subject: RE: [NHCOLL-L:1898] Re: Threatened Collections

  Hi Elaine,

  Thanks!  For some reason my message bounced back from the list (says I'm
not a member even though I am), so could you do me a favor and send your
note again copied to the list?  Thanks!

  Hope all is well there.

  Cheers,

  Brent

    You can say it better than I, Brent, being in the trenches.  You've got
to show that you are valuable if not indespensible, in order to compete for
resources, and this means locally valuable.   You are doing a great job at
Berkeley.  I hope that the meeting is productive!

    Elaine

      -----Original Message-----
      From: Brent Mishler [mailto:bmishler at socrates.Berkeley.EDU]
      Sent: Saturday, April 19, 2003 1:46 AM
      To: faulzeitler at nscalliance.org; dyanega at pop.ucr.edu; elaine at cur.org;
NHCOLL-L at lists.yale.edu
      Subject: Re: [NHCOLL-L:1898] Re: Threatened Collections

      Dear all,

      I appreciate all the comments on this issue over the last few days,
this is a good time for introspection.  We need to avoid whining, though
(i.e., "no one appreciates us...") and instead get in there and do things
that bring appreciation.

      My experience after nearly 10 years as a university museum director is
that administrators are not evil (I started out thinking they must be, but I
realize now they aren't -- in fact that is giving them too much credit!).
Instead, administrators are basically ignorant -- they don't have an
informed opinion about the status of any particular field.  They form their
perceptions about the fields under their responsibility by how well the
faculty in that field do.  They want to see lots of published papers,
grants, news articles, honors, good public outreach and teaching, etc.
Systematics is a great field right now in which to do all those things
well -- it is in a revolutionary stage of development both conceptually and
empirically, there are lots of new integrative funding initiatives at NSF,
and the majority of the public does understand and appreciate biodiversity:
dinosaurs, flowers, and butterflies -- in fact, we have much better public
understanding of what we do as compared to particle physics, astronomy, or
biochemistry.  The reason some of those fields have higher standing on some
campuses is because faculty in those fields have done a better selling job
on their administrators.

      So my take on the current crunch brought on by state budget crises all
over the country (yes, we have one too -- I just had to lay people off as
part of an across the board 10% cut in state funds) is that we in the
university museums should redouble our efforts to stay in the mainstream of
science and campus life.  Publish lots of papers, try for innovative grant
proposals, teach the general courses and do it well, and don't forget
participating in campus administration and politics.  Doing a favor for your
administrator by taking some hard committee assignment gives you leverage
next time you need help and support from that administrator.

      I'd like to second what Bobbie said -- let's everybody get together
here in Berkeley in June for the NSCA meeting and look at ways to strengthen
the standing of musuems of all types (I'm obviously focusing on university
musuems here, but most of these ideas apply across the board).  We have
sessions planned to address all the relevant issues, and the timing couldn't
be better.

      Cheers,

      Brent

      --

      **********************************************************
      Brent D. Mishler
           Professor, Department of Integrative Biology
           Director, University and Jepson Herbaria
           Associate Director, California Biodiversity Center
        Mailing address:
           UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY
           UNIVERSITY AND JEPSON HERBARIA
           1001 VALLEY LIFE SCIENCES BLDG # 2465
           BERKELEY, CA  94720-2465  USA
        Phone:  (510) 642-6810
        FAX:    (510) 643-5390
        E-mail: bmishler at socrates.berkeley.edu
        WWW:    http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/people/mishler.html
      **********************************************************

--

  **********************************************************
  Brent D. Mishler
       Professor, Department of Integrative Biology
       Director, University and Jepson Herbaria
       Associate Director, California Biodiversity Center
    Mailing address:
       UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY
       UNIVERSITY AND JEPSON HERBARIA
       1001 VALLEY LIFE SCIENCES BLDG # 2465
       BERKELEY, CA  94720-2465  USA
    Phone:  (510) 642-6810
    FAX:    (510) 643-5390
    E-mail: bmishler at socrates.berkeley.edu
    WWW:    http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/people/mishler.html
  **********************************************************

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