[NHCOLL-L:1958] RE: Ironic quotes from Bioscience

[Gamble, Tim]

Neither the science of taxonomy nor natural history collections in general are under attack.  The unfortunate reality is that most state and local governments are facing major budget problems, in many cases reaching deficit levels never faced before.  This has left governments, and the agencies and institutions they fund, scrambling to find ways to make large budget reductions.  Everyone potentially affected by these cuts believes that their work is too important to cut and therefore cuts should be made "elsewhere" or additional monies should be made to magically appear.  Rarely in our impassioned defense of our particular area do we suggest the elsewhere for administrators to make those cuts or ways that additional monies can be raised.  We are reduced to only promoting the importance of our positions and our collections.  And taxonomy and natural history collections are important, make no mistake about that.  However, we are competing for very limited resources with other agencies, fields and positions which are also important in their own right.
 
Most of the suggestions I've seen posted on this list serve and have heard discussed in other venues revolve around better explaining the importance of taxonomy and natural history collections.  However, this only addresses the symptom, not the underlying problem.  We have for far too long relied on the government dole for our funding.  We should have been, and need to start, looking for ways to get off of government welfare (a harsh term but an accurate one for our situation) and begin looking for ways to become self-supporting.  Private donations, grants, endowments, corporate sponsorships and affiliations, naming rights (we already do this for buildings, why not collections and research projects...the Pfizer Mycology Collection?), merchandising, etc...  What about marketing and promoting an annual (or quarterly or monthly) "behind the scenes" tour of collections explaining to the public the importance and needs of your collections and research and ending with an opportunity for them to make donations?  Many libraries have "Friends of the Library" organizations that raise money for that particular library.  Why not form "Friends of the Entomology Collection" or "Friends of the Paleontology Research Program" organizations? 
 
We should also be looking with a businessman's eye at ways we can operate more efficiently and reduce costs.  For example, do we buy reference books directly from the publisher for full price or use the internet to find discount prices?  Actually I've found a number of technical books on the internet for half or less of their $100 + price from the publisher.  Yet I've run into a number of people in our field who resist this kind of comparison shopping, perhaps because they believe we should be above it - after all we scientists not business people. 
 
These are just ideas off the top of my head, some with more merit than others I'm sure.  But the bottom line is that we need to not only think and act as curators and collections managers, but also think and act as business people.  A disquieting idea for many I'm sure, but a dose of reality that we must face if we are to survive.         
 
Tim Gamble
Collections Technician
Schiele Museum of Natural History
Gastonia, NC 28054
 
*****The above opinions are mine alone and not necessarily those of the Schiele Museum or the City of Gastonia.*****
 
      
 

-----Original Message-----
From: David Richman [mailto:nmbugman at taipan.nmsu.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, June 18, 2003 11:13 AM
To: NHCOLL-L at lists.yale.edu
Subject: [NHCOLL-L:1953] RE: Ironic quotes from Bioscience


Dear All:

The quote is all too true, has been for some time and in some places is getting worse.  It is nearly impossible to get through to some administrators (although sometimes we in the museum community have been our worst enemies) that collections serve an important function.  I have flooded administrators with information on how many people we serve in outreach, how many questions we field from our state and elsewhere, how many and what kind of research projects we back up and how many classes to which we provide teaching materials and I still cannot get an assistant.    In my case I'm not sure that taxonomy or museums per se are the problem.  Administrators deal with numerous demands from faculty and they often cannot tell which demands are worth supporting because everybody can quote statistics on how much their program is benefiting the university.  If money is tight the answer to all requests is "no."  I was told by one person that if being a player in the grantmanship game requires money then we just would not play.  We have to instead face the proximate problem of budget cuts next year.  I think in the future amateurs will take on much of the work because they don't have to deal with these issues in a tax-cutting low state revenue atmosphere.  

On the other side there is more and more cooperation between molecular and whole-organism researchers and perhaps that will eventually filter up to administrators.

These are my opinions alone and not necessarily those of my institution.

Sincerely,

David B. Richman 




> 
> "As molecules became more important, traditional taxonomy, with its reliance
> on large specimen collections, became an antiquated backwater.  It recalled
> too many memories of 20th century naturalists, butterfly catchers, and John
> Steinbeck's "Doc" -- a marine biologist who collected specimens off the
> rocks on Cannery Row.  Many of the gene jockeys questioned whether taxonomy
> was ever a science at all.
> As if in response to this growing concensus, financing for taxonomy took a
> nosedive.  Traditional taxonomists, those who have full knowledge of a
> single taxon, are now in short supply."
> 
> (Paul Thacker is a freelance science writer.  Clearly, he is not a
> taxonomist.)
> 
> 
> Robert E. Gropp, 2003.  Are University Natural Science Collections Going
> Extinct?  Bioscience, June 2003/Vol. 53, no. 6, p 550:
> 
> "...the chancellor of the University of Nebraska has announced the
> elimination of several collections ad all research divisions at UNSM.
> Museum supporters have not capitulated, however.  In early May, amid growing
> faculty tension and national media attention, the chancellor announced he
> would put his planned cuts to a vote of the faculty.  If a majority agree
> with the chancellor's budget plan, it will take effect; if not, he will
> resign, he says, and university deans will make budget cuts."
> 
> (I hope the faculty members don't read Thacker before they vote.)
> 
> Elaine
> 

David B. Richman 
Science Specialist/Graduate Professor and 
Curator, The Arthropod Museum 
Department of Entomology, Plant Pathology and Weed Science 
MSC 3BE, Box 30003 
New Mexico State University 
Las Cruces, NM 88003Tel: (505) 646-2900 
Web pages:  <http://taipan.nmsu.edu/people/richman/dbr.html> http://taipan.nmsu.edu/people/richman/dbr.html


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