[Nhcoll-l] no data specimens

[Bentley, Andrew Charles]

Wendell

To be clear we are talking about specimens that have little to no data and are not well curated research collections with data.  Hopefully you can find someone to take on your collection when you decide to hand it off but it worries me that you would rather throw it in a dumpster than have it used for important K-12 or undergraduate education.  Taking on these collections is a community problem that definitely needs addressing as taking on an “orphan” collection puts a strain on the accepting institutions resources and space and hinders their ability to take care of existing or incoming material.

Also, to be fair, the reasoning behind limiting amateur access to collections is due to data sensitivity and the ability to use that data to find paleo sites and plunder them – not our ability to use these collections for formal and informal education.

Andy
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Andy Bentley
Ichthyology Collection Manager
University of Kansas
Biodiversity Institute
Dyche Hall
1345 Jayhawk Boulevard<x-apple-data-detectors://9>
Lawrence, KS, 66045-7561<x-apple-data-detectors://9>
USA<x-apple-data-detectors://9>

Tel: (785) 864-3863<tel:%28785%29%20864-3863>
Fax: (785) 864-5335<tel:%28785%29%20864-5335>
Email: abentley at ku.edu<mailto:abentley at ku.edu>
http://ichthyology.biodiversity.ku.edu<http://ichthyology.biodiversity.ku.edu/>
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From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> On Behalf Of Editor FourCats Press
Sent: Thursday, October 14, 2021 1:00 PM
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] no data specimens

For perhaps a different perspective: As someone who is at the stage of life of having to think about how to pass on an invertebrate paleontology collection I’ve carefully curated for 47 years, the idea that my specimens might end up in a bucket for kids to scoop through is enough to make me want to cart the whole thing to the landfill. An added irony is knowing how hard museums, institutions, and professional associations have argued over the years for limiting/prohibiting access to fossil resources by “amateurs” and how many museums and universities have thousands of square feet of specimens they've “protected” but that no one has ever looked at. Craig Childs’ _Finders Keepers_ took a crack at this problem in the context of archaeology/anthropology, but I’ve yet to see the issue taken seriously (in print) by museum professionals.

Wendell Ricketts
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