[NHCOLL-L:4693] RE: Evaluation format for collections of natural history

[Norris, Christopher]

Dear Alexandra

This is one of those "how long is a piece of string?" questions - there are a range of potential survey tools out there, but the choice depends on what you want to measure (level of curation, vulnerability, etc.) and the resources (staff, time, money) that you have available.

Lisa Elkin (AMNH) and I have an ongoing research project looking at the pluses and minuses of the existing methodologies and trying to come up with methods for streamling. If you can give us a little more background about what you want to achieve we'd be happy to discuss with you

Regards, Chris Norris

=============================
Dr. Christopher A. Norris
Senior Collection Manager, Division of Vertebrate Paleontology
Peabody Museum of Natural History
170 Whitney Ave.
PO Box 208118
New Haven, CT 06520-8118

Tel. +1(203)-432-3748
Fax. +1(203)-432-9816
________________________________________
From: owner-nhcoll-l at lists.yale.edu [owner-nhcoll-l at lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of amsnyder at unm.edu [amsnyder at unm.edu]
Sent: Saturday, January 30, 2010 1:44 PM
To: NHCOLL-L at lists.yale.edu
Subject: [NHCOLL-L:4692] Evaluation format for collections of natural history

A US federal agency (Dept. of Interior, US Bureau of Reclamation) that I
work with needs a format/guideline by which to evaluate the facility and
curatorial procedures that their collections (in this case, fishes)are
subject to. They asked me for a recommendation.  I have checked the
websites for the National Park Service and the American Museum Association
but cannot find anything related to evaluating a single museum division.
Somewhere in my "mental filing cabinet," I thought there was such an
evaluation for museums that hold collections (archeological) from US
National Park lands, but cannot put my hands on it. Not that these
collections are from NPS lands but I thought such an evaluation format
would be appropriate since it is generated by another federal agency. Any
suggestions?

Thank you for your attention to this information request.

________________________________________
Alexandra M Snyder, Collections Manager
Museum of Southwestern Biology
Division of Fishes MSC03-2020
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque NM 87131 USA
PH.505.277.6005
amsnyder at unm.edu