From dbloom at vertnet.org Mon Dec 1 17:27:36 2025 From: dbloom at vertnet.org (David Bloom) Date: Mon, 1 Dec 2025 14:27:36 -0800 Subject: [Nhcoll-l] Ranges Imaging Mini-Awards Message-ID: The Ranges Network is pleased to announce the third, and final, call for the Ranges Imaging Mini-Awards. *Applications must be submitted by January 7, 2026, 11:59pm Pacific Standard Time.* The Mini-Awards enable researchers to produce new images of mammal specimens from biocollections to extend their current research by collecting internal and potentially complex trait data at the intraspecific level that can be integrated with other specimen-level data digitized by Ranges, such as reproduction, habitat, geographic origins, or time. Projects focused on any aspect of morphological variation are welcome.For more information about the types of projects we fund and project requirements. please visit: https://ranges-network.org/awards/**Anyone affiliated with an institution in the United States can apply for a Mini-Award including under/graduate students, postdocs, and faculty at all career stages. David Bloom Ranges Network Project Manager TDWG Chair GBIF North America Regional Representative VertNet Project Manager VertNet Head of Delegation/Node Manager ORCID: 0000-0003-1273-1807 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jessica.bazeley at yale.edu Tue Dec 2 08:50:21 2025 From: jessica.bazeley at yale.edu (Utrup, Jessica) Date: Tue, 2 Dec 2025 13:50:21 +0000 Subject: [Nhcoll-l] NHCOLL: Brought to you by SPNHC Message-ID: NHCOLL-L is provided as a service to the collections community by the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC). We depend on list members to provide only those postings that are appropriate to the subject matter, which includes topics such as collections administration, collections care, computerization, conservation, management, and job postings. Both policy and practical discussions are appropriate. Information of all kinds is welcome, however, advertising of items or services for sale is inappropriate. Membership in SPNHC gives you access to a lively, active, and interdisciplinary global community of professionals dedicated to the care of natural history collections. SPNHC's membership is drawn from more than 20 countries and includes museum specialists such as curators, collections managers, conservators, preparators, and database administrators. The Society hosts annual meetings and sponsors symposia and workshops to foster the exchange of ideas and information. Member benefits also include early online access to the society's peer-reviewed journal, Collection Forum, a biannual newsletter and a wealth of content on our website at www.spnhc.org. Membership information can be found by visiting our website and clicking "Join SPNHC." -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ekrimmel at gmail.com Fri Dec 5 14:41:42 2025 From: ekrimmel at gmail.com (Erica Krimmel) Date: Fri, 5 Dec 2025 11:41:42 -0800 Subject: [Nhcoll-l] Next week - Additional community help desk sessions for Darwin Core public review Message-ID: Hi NHColl, TDWG (Biodiversity Information Standards) has been hosting a series of community help desk sessions related to the public review of the new conceptual model and Data Package Guide for Darwin Core . The final three will be held next week: - Monday, 8 Dec, 13:00 - 14:00 UTC - Tuesday, 9 Dec, 00:00 - 1:00 UTC - Thursday, 11 Dec, 14:00 - 15:00 UTC The sessions on Dec 8 and 9 are being hosted by the TDWG Earth Science and Paleobiology Interest Group, with a focus on the needs of this domain, but all are welcome! One of their focus areas is on the ability to use terms in a new DwC class, "assertions," to effectively mobilize domain-specific information. This will be relevant to many of us working in more specialized collections or research areas. Register here ? in advance or last-minute ? to receive a Zoom link and see the schedule in your local time zone. Feel free to drop in/out during the hour. See here for more information about the series , including a recorded intro from the first session. Best, erica *Erica Krimmel* ekrimmel at gmail.com Biodiversity Information Scientist | TDWG Regional Representative for North America ORCID 0000-0003-3192-0080 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From thormj at gmail.com Mon Dec 8 07:09:02 2025 From: thormj at gmail.com (Thor Martin Jensen) Date: Mon, 8 Dec 2025 13:09:02 +0100 Subject: [Nhcoll-l] Seeking insight and examples: Creating audio guides for different visitor types Message-ID: I'm exploring how museums are approaching a challenge I keep hearing about: creating audio interpretation that serves different types of visitors without overwhelming production resources. The ideal scenario would be having different narrative tracks available in the same exhibition: - A version for children that sparks curiosity - A scholarly version for those with deep knowledge - A general visitor version with essential context - Versions for accessibility needs (blind visitors, neurodivergent visitors, etc.) - All of the above in multiple languages for international audiences But I rarely see this in practice. Is this not really in demand from visitors? Is it a resource constraint? A strategic choice? Are there museums doing this well that I should look at? I'm exploring this through developing Walkie Talkie, an audio guide platform, and created a small demonstration (8 masterworks in 8 languages) to test the concept: https://walkietalk.ie/c/eBW7t5qU But I'm more interested in learning from this group: - Has anyone implemented multiple narrative tracks for different audiences in the same exhibition? - What were the challenges (production time, visitor confusion, maintenance)? - Are there successful case studies I should examine? - Is this something visitors actually want, or is it solving a problem that doesn't exist? I'd appreciate hearing from anyone who's tried this or thought deeply about it *Sincerely / Med Venlig Hilsen* Thor Martin Baerug Connect at: linkedin.com/company/walkietalk-ie/ | walkietalk.ie/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From d.neumann at leibniz-lib.de Fri Dec 12 11:57:27 2025 From: d.neumann at leibniz-lib.de (Dirk Neumann) Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2025 17:57:27 +0100 Subject: [Nhcoll-l] Action of SPNHC MEMBERS needed: participate in CBD Secretariat call to improve the functioning of the Nagoya Protocol In-Reply-To: References: <01bd01dc6519$cdf55f30$69e01d90$@vbio.de> <002b01dc652b$61e5c700$25b15500$@vbio.de> <42c2c648-2376-4bfd-a3ac-3ca0c28d8a77@leibniz-lib.de> Message-ID: <78095bad-45e1-4073-9b00-ae3e7a67cdf1@leibniz-lib.de> Dear SPNHC members and NHColl-folks, the CBD Secretariat currently carries out a a targeted survey on challenges related to the implementation of the Nagoya Protocol, deadline to submit is next Monday 15 th Dec 2025. It would be good if especially scientist/institutions from outside Noth America and Europe would participate actively. The call is open for institutions and individual users, aka scientists or scientific institutions. Basis for the CBD survey is decision NP-3/1, paragraph 18 (a). The aim of the (hopefully) improve some of the dysfunctionalities of the Nagoya Protocol. The CETAF Legs & Regs group has prepared a template for your answers which is based on experiences at three large CETAF member institutions. Our answers aim to call for simplified/harmonised, e.g. by suggesting the CETAF Code of Conduct as recognised Best Practice among others. This Code of Conduct is currently the only officially recognised Best Practice and also referenced on the website of the CBD: https://www.cbd.int/abs/submissions/icnp-3/eu-taxonomic-practices.pdf Please submit your individual institutional submissions, feel free to use the pre-filled PDF-form as reference for your answers wherever this might be useful. Deadline for the survey is 15th December, Link: https://forms.office.com/e/R5XdcaL2F7 It would be for our own advantage if there is a strong response from our community. Please avoid ranting about the NP; it will not be changed or amended, instead, we should stay focused to improve its functionality and that of the ABS Clearing House that provides relevant information. Thanks to all that contribute in advance, With best wishes Dirk Neumann -- **** Dirk Neumann Collection Manager, Hamburg Postal address: Museum of Nature Hamburg Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change Dirk Neumann Martin-Luther-King-Platz 3 20146 Hamburg +49 40 238 317 ? 628 d.neumann at leibniz-lib.de www.leibniz-lib.de -- Stiftung Leibniz-Institut zur Analyse des Biodiversit?tswandels Postanschrift: Adenauerallee 127, 53113 Bonn, Germany Stiftung des ?ffentlichen Rechts; Generaldirektion: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Misof (Generaldirektor), Adrian Gr?ter (Kaufm. Gesch?ftsf?hrer) Sitz der Stiftung: Adenauerallee 160 in Bonn Vorsitzender des Stiftungsrates: Dr. Michael Wappelhorst -- Stiftung Leibniz-Institut zur Analyse des Biodiversit?tswandels Postanschrift: Adenauerallee 127, 53113 Bonn, Germany Stiftung des ?ffentlichen Rechts; Generaldirektion: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Misof (Generaldirektor), Adrian Gr?ter (Kaufm. Gesch?ftsf?hrer) Sitz der Stiftung: Adenauerallee 160 in Bonn Vorsitzender des Stiftungsrates: Dr. Michael H. Wappelhorst -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: SCBD_target survey decision NP-3-1 para18a_prefilled.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 1363359 bytes Desc: not available URL: From Rodrigo.Pellegrini at sos.nj.gov Fri Dec 12 13:10:27 2025 From: Rodrigo.Pellegrini at sos.nj.gov (Pellegrini, Rodrigo [DOS]) Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2025 18:10:27 +0000 Subject: [Nhcoll-l] Entomology taxonomy for database Message-ID: Greetings everyone, We are currently making an effort to catalog our entomology collection at the NJSM, and add it to our database. We are a Natural History department within a Museum that also houses collections of Archaeology, Fine Art, and Cultural History. Most of us in NH happen to be paleontologists, and the modern insect collection hasn't really been a priority in a very long time. A paleoentomologist recently joined our ranks, and has been identifying, re-identifying and assigning catalog numbers to our old (recent) insects, and the time to import them into our database, EMU, is nigh. Needless to say, our taxonomy tables in the database lack insect taxonomy. While I could import them with just the ID our paleoentomologist assigned, it would be much better to be able to search the data by taxonomic relations, and hence I'm wondering if anybody here would be kind enough to share their entomology taxonomy tables as a CSV file, for me to import them into our database. We are hoping to get a file that includes up to the Family level, and we could create the genus species for the species represented in our collections. As I said, we use EMU, but if your database (whatever it may be) can produce a comma-separated-file with understandable headers for the hierarchy (or a key of what the backend name headers correspond to in the hierarchy), I can make it work. It would save us a ton of time, and we would very much appreciate it. Please let me know directly at Rodrigo.Pellegrini at sos.nj.gov if you can help us out. Thank you very much for your time, Rod From dlpaul at illinois.edu Fri Dec 12 13:44:20 2025 From: dlpaul at illinois.edu (Deborah Paul) Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2025 12:44:20 -0600 Subject: [Nhcoll-l] Entomology taxonomy for database In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <1ef55569-00c3-4761-9daa-af5ef32673db@illinois.edu> Hi Rod, Glad to hear you have a paleoentomologist with you. You can get names and taxonomy you need from Catalogue of Life via their exporter. 1. You will need a GBIF account (do you have one? they are instant to get) to Login. 2. Log in to Checklist Bank (where COL datasets live, to search and download). https://www.checklistbank.org/ 3. Go to "Datasets" and find the most recent "Annual Release" (this one: https://www.checklistbank.org/dataset/310463/about) 4. Click on Downloads to generate a download: (see options to pick below); 5. You will get more that you want / need (i. e. classification above Family level). You can of course delete the columns you are not interested in. Please holler if you have questions. The COL team will help. I pinged my colleague Geoff Ower, one of the COL Developers to be sure I've pointed you in a useful direction. Best, Debbie On 12/12/2025 12:10 PM, Pellegrini, Rodrigo [DOS] wrote: > Greetings everyone, > > We are currently making an effort to catalog our entomology collection at the NJSM, ... > A paleoentomologist recently joined our ranks, and has been identifying, re-identifying and assigning catalog numbers to our old (recent) insects, and the time to import them into our database, EMU, is nigh. > Needless to say, our taxonomy tables in the database lack insect taxonomy. ... I'm wondering if anybody here would be kind enough to share their entomology taxonomy tables as a CSV file, for me to import them into our database. We are hoping to get a file that includes up to the Family level, and we could create the genus species for the species represented in our collections. > > ... if your database (whatever it may be) can produce a comma-separated-file with understandable headers for the hierarchy (or a key of what the backend name headers correspond to in the hierarchy), I can make it work. > > It would save us a ton of time, and we would very much appreciate it. Please let me know directly atRodrigo.Pellegrini at sos.nj.gov if you can help us out. > Thank you very much for your time, > > Rod > > -- - Deborah Paul, Biodiversity Informatics Community Liaison - Species File Group (INHS), University of Illinois -- Natural History Collections and Museomics NHCM Editor-in-Chiefhttps://nhcm.pensoft.net -- Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) Past Chair 2021-2022 -- Florida State University Courtesy Appointment -- Species File Group and Eventshttps://speciesfilegroup.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: yWQQED1XSt8U0LdQ.png Type: image/png Size: 141967 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: QEBpqkhcyI6ZhcOk.png Type: image/png Size: 65239 bytes Desc: not available URL: From vanessa.pitusi at uit.no Mon Dec 15 06:29:58 2025 From: vanessa.pitusi at uit.no (Vanessa Pitusi) Date: Mon, 15 Dec 2025 11:29:58 +0000 Subject: [Nhcoll-l] Cetacean skeleton issues Message-ID: Dear all, I have been going through our cetacean skeletons and have noticed some issues (see photos). Any advice on how to treat such conditions and how long that would take? Kind regards, Vanessa [cid:image001.png at 01DC6DBE.57785530] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.png Type: image/png Size: 23483 bytes Desc: image001.png URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: TSZM-695 (4).jpeg Type: application/octet-stream Size: 208144 bytes Desc: TSZM-695 (4).jpeg URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: TSZM-2181.jpeg Type: application/octet-stream Size: 320270 bytes Desc: TSZM-2181.jpeg URL: From couteaufin at btinternet.com Mon Dec 15 06:47:55 2025 From: couteaufin at btinternet.com (Simon Moore) Date: Mon, 15 Dec 2025 11:47:55 +0000 Subject: [Nhcoll-l] Cetacean skeleton issues In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <758FCC87-F819-4AE6-85D6-F7EE4844ECB5@btinternet.com> Hi Vanessa, Apart from the nails (!), the brown issues look very much like oxidised lipid problems. I?m hoping that there may be some updated technology from other advisers as I?m sure that that the defatting of cetacean bones will have moved on from when this was done during my earlier years at the NHM, London, where user-unfriendly solvents such as dimethyl chloride were used in a reflux condenser to remove as much of the residual lipid as possible without causing the bones to become slightly embrittled. I noted that the bones have already started to deteriorate due to acidity and these may require some post-treatment consolidation, especially if they are load-bearing. With all good wishes, Simon Simon Moore MIScT, RSci, FLS, ACR Conservator of Natural Sciences and Cutlery Historian. www.natural-history-conservation.com > On 15 Dec 2025, at 11:29, Vanessa Pitusi wrote: > > Dear all, > I have been going through our cetacean skeletons and have noticed some issues (see photos). > Any advice on how to treat such conditions and how long that would take? > Kind regards, > Vanessa > _______________________________________________ > Nhcoll-l mailing list > Nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu > https://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/nhcoll-l > > _______________________________________________ > NHCOLL-L is brought to you by the Society for the Preservation of > Natural History Collections (SPNHC), an international society whose > mission is to improve the preservation, conservation and management of > natural history collections to ensure their continuing value to > society. See http://www.spnhc.org for membership information. > Advertising on NH-COLL-L is inappropriate. From d.neumann at leibniz-lib.de Mon Dec 15 06:48:32 2025 From: d.neumann at leibniz-lib.de (Dirk Neumann) Date: Mon, 15 Dec 2025 12:48:32 +0100 Subject: [Nhcoll-l] [EXTERN] Cetacean skeleton issues In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Dear Vanessa, on a quick look, some seems like intense oil/fat staining, but especially on the second picture it looks like if there would be mould growth on top of the greasy surfaces. With best wishes Dirk Am 15.12.2025 um 12:29 schrieb Vanessa Pitusi: Dear all, I have been going through our cetacean skeletons and have noticed some issues (see photos). Any advice on how to treat such conditions and how long that would take? Kind regards, Vanessa [cid:part1.FI8rYtPl.QWAXz7VX at leibniz-lib.de] _______________________________________________ Nhcoll-l mailing list Nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu https://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/nhcoll-l _______________________________________________ NHCOLL-L is brought to you by the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC), an international society whose mission is to improve the preservation, conservation and management of natural history collections to ensure their continuing value to society. See http://www.spnhc.org for membership information. Advertising on NH-COLL-L is inappropriate. -- **** Dirk Neumann Collection Manager, Hamburg Postal address: Museum of Nature Hamburg Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change Dirk Neumann Martin-Luther-King-Platz 3 20146 Hamburg +49 40 238 317 ? 628 d.neumann at leibniz-lib.de www.leibniz-lib.de -- Stiftung Leibniz-Institut zur Analyse des Biodiversit?tswandels Postanschrift: Adenauerallee 127, 53113 Bonn, Germany Stiftung des ?ffentlichen Rechts; Generaldirektion: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Misof (Generaldirektor), Adrian Gr?ter (Kaufm. Gesch?ftsf?hrer) Sitz der Stiftung: Adenauerallee 160 in Bonn Vorsitzender des Stiftungsrates: Dr. Michael Wappelhorst -- Stiftung Leibniz-Institut zur Analyse des Biodiversit?tswandels Postanschrift: Adenauerallee 127, 53113 Bonn, Germany Stiftung des ?ffentlichen Rechts; Generaldirektion: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Misof (Generaldirektor), Adrian Gr?ter (Kaufm. Gesch?ftsf?hrer) Sitz der Stiftung: Adenauerallee 160 in Bonn Vorsitzender des Stiftungsrates: Dr. Michael H. Wappelhorst -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.png Type: image/png Size: 23483 bytes Desc: not available URL: From vanessa.pitusi at uit.no Mon Dec 15 07:26:48 2025 From: vanessa.pitusi at uit.no (Vanessa Pitusi) Date: Mon, 15 Dec 2025 12:26:48 +0000 Subject: [Nhcoll-l] [EXTERN] Cetacean skeleton issues In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Dear Dirk, Thank you for getting back to me and, mould, what a Christmas present ? All the best, Vanessa [cid:image001.png at 01DC6DC6.63DF19F0] From: Nhcoll-l On Behalf Of Dirk Neumann Sent: Monday, December 15, 2025 12:49 PM To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] [EXTERN] Cetacean skeleton issues Dear Vanessa, on a quick look, some seems like intense oil/fat staining, but especially on the second picture it looks like if there would be mould growth on top of the greasy surfaces. With best wishes Dirk Am 15.12.2025 um 12:29 schrieb Vanessa Pitusi: Dear all, I have been going through our cetacean skeletons and have noticed some issues (see photos). Any advice on how to treat such conditions and how long that would take? Kind regards, Vanessa [cid:image001.png at 01DC6DC6.63DF19F0] _______________________________________________ Nhcoll-l mailing list Nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu https://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/nhcoll-l _______________________________________________ NHCOLL-L is brought to you by the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC), an international society whose mission is to improve the preservation, conservation and management of natural history collections to ensure their continuing value to society. See http://www.spnhc.org for membership information. Advertising on NH-COLL-L is inappropriate. -- **** Dirk Neumann Collection Manager, Hamburg Postal address: Museum of Nature Hamburg Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change Dirk Neumann Martin-Luther-King-Platz 3 20146 Hamburg +49 40 238 317 ? 628 d.neumann at leibniz-lib.de www.leibniz-lib.de -- Stiftung Leibniz-Institut zur Analyse des Biodiversit?tswandels Postanschrift: Adenauerallee 127, 53113 Bonn, Germany Stiftung des ?ffentlichen Rechts; Generaldirektion: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Misof (Generaldirektor), Adrian Gr?ter (Kaufm. Gesch?ftsf?hrer) Sitz der Stiftung: Adenauerallee 160 in Bonn Vorsitzender des Stiftungsrates: Dr. Michael Wappelhorst -- Stiftung Leibniz-Institut zur Analyse des Biodiversit?tswandels Postanschrift: Adenauerallee 127, 53113 Bonn, Germany Stiftung des ?ffentlichen Rechts; Generaldirektion: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Misof (Generaldirektor), Adrian Gr?ter (Kaufm. Gesch?ftsf?hrer) Sitz der Stiftung: Adenauerallee 160 in Bonn Vorsitzender des Stiftungsrates: Dr. Michael H. Wappelhorst -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.png Type: image/png Size: 23483 bytes Desc: image001.png URL: From Dee.Stubbs-Lee at nbm-mnb.ca Mon Dec 15 08:37:23 2025 From: Dee.Stubbs-Lee at nbm-mnb.ca (Dee Stubbs-Lee) Date: Mon, 15 Dec 2025 13:37:23 +0000 Subject: [Nhcoll-l] change of email address for NHCOLL-L subscription Message-ID: Hi, As I will be retiring from my position at the NBM, but would like to keep receiving the NHCOLL-L mailings can you please change my subscription email address from Dee.Stubbs-Lee at nbm-mnb.ca to deestubbs at hotmail.com ? Many thanks, Dee Dee A. Stubbs-Lee, MA, CAPC, FIIC Conservator / Restauratrice New Brunswick Museum Research and Collections Center 228 Lancaster Avenue Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada E2M 2K8 (506) 643-2341 Dee.Stubbs-Lee at nbm-mnb.ca www.nbm-mnb.ca -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.gif Type: image/gif Size: 70 bytes Desc: image001.gif URL: From d.neumann at leibniz-lib.de Mon Dec 15 09:17:29 2025 From: d.neumann at leibniz-lib.de (Dirk Neumann) Date: Mon, 15 Dec 2025 15:17:29 +0100 Subject: [Nhcoll-l] [EXTERN] Cetacean skeleton issues In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <738c8f58-06fd-4968-a80c-84cf625d72be@leibniz-lib.de> Dear Vanessa, if it is indeed mould (you would easily recognise this from the powdery spores), you can treat this with 70% EtOH. Otherwise, if it is "just" grease, the question would be if conservation treatment is needed. Especially old whales have a lot of grease in their bones, and even if you would degrease the surface, the remaining grease would ooze out again. Which chemical decreasing, you would probably reduce the scientific value of the specimen, because the chemical agents and decreasing procedure would affect the remaining proteins and lipids that might be useful for future research. With best wishes Dirk Am 15.12.2025 um 13:26 schrieb Vanessa Pitusi: Dear Dirk, Thank you for getting back to me and, mould, what a Christmas present ? All the best, Vanessa [cid:part1.c4hKgYf0.e6D4WP3z at leibniz-lib.de] From: Nhcoll-l On Behalf Of Dirk Neumann Sent: Monday, December 15, 2025 12:49 PM To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] [EXTERN] Cetacean skeleton issues Dear Vanessa, on a quick look, some seems like intense oil/fat staining, but especially on the second picture it looks like if there would be mould growth on top of the greasy surfaces. With best wishes Dirk Am 15.12.2025 um 12:29 schrieb Vanessa Pitusi: Dear all, I have been going through our cetacean skeletons and have noticed some issues (see photos). Any advice on how to treat such conditions and how long that would take? Kind regards, Vanessa [cid:part1.c4hKgYf0.e6D4WP3z at leibniz-lib.de] _______________________________________________ Nhcoll-l mailing list Nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu https://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/nhcoll-l _______________________________________________ NHCOLL-L is brought to you by the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC), an international society whose mission is to improve the preservation, conservation and management of natural history collections to ensure their continuing value to society. See http://www.spnhc.org for membership information. Advertising on NH-COLL-L is inappropriate. -- **** Dirk Neumann Collection Manager, Hamburg Postal address: Museum of Nature Hamburg Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change Dirk Neumann Martin-Luther-King-Platz 3 20146 Hamburg +49 40 238 317 ? 628 d.neumann at leibniz-lib.de www.leibniz-lib.de -- Stiftung Leibniz-Institut zur Analyse des Biodiversit?tswandels Postanschrift: Adenauerallee 127, 53113 Bonn, Germany Stiftung des ?ffentlichen Rechts; Generaldirektion: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Misof (Generaldirektor), Adrian Gr?ter (Kaufm. Gesch?ftsf?hrer) Sitz der Stiftung: Adenauerallee 160 in Bonn Vorsitzender des Stiftungsrates: Dr. Michael Wappelhorst -- Stiftung Leibniz-Institut zur Analyse des Biodiversit?tswandels Postanschrift: Adenauerallee 127, 53113 Bonn, Germany Stiftung des ?ffentlichen Rechts; Generaldirektion: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Misof (Generaldirektor), Adrian Gr?ter (Kaufm. Gesch?ftsf?hrer) Sitz der Stiftung: Adenauerallee 160 in Bonn Vorsitzender des Stiftungsrates: Dr. Michael H. Wappelhorst -- **** Dirk Neumann Collection Manager, Hamburg Postal address: Museum of Nature Hamburg Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change Dirk Neumann Martin-Luther-King-Platz 3 20146 Hamburg +49 40 238 317 ? 628 d.neumann at leibniz-lib.de www.leibniz-lib.de -- Stiftung Leibniz-Institut zur Analyse des Biodiversit?tswandels Postanschrift: Adenauerallee 127, 53113 Bonn, Germany Stiftung des ?ffentlichen Rechts; Generaldirektion: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Misof (Generaldirektor), Adrian Gr?ter (Kaufm. Gesch?ftsf?hrer) Sitz der Stiftung: Adenauerallee 160 in Bonn Vorsitzender des Stiftungsrates: Dr. Michael Wappelhorst -- Stiftung Leibniz-Institut zur Analyse des Biodiversit?tswandels Postanschrift: Adenauerallee 127, 53113 Bonn, Germany Stiftung des ?ffentlichen Rechts; Generaldirektion: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Misof (Generaldirektor), Adrian Gr?ter (Kaufm. Gesch?ftsf?hrer) Sitz der Stiftung: Adenauerallee 160 in Bonn Vorsitzender des Stiftungsrates: Dr. Michael H. Wappelhorst -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.png Type: image/png Size: 23483 bytes Desc: not available URL: From prc44 at drexel.edu Mon Dec 15 09:20:28 2025 From: prc44 at drexel.edu (Callomon,Paul) Date: Mon, 15 Dec 2025 14:20:28 +0000 Subject: [Nhcoll-l] [EXTERN] Cetacean skeleton issues In-Reply-To: <738c8f58-06fd-4968-a80c-84cf625d72be@leibniz-lib.de> References: <738c8f58-06fd-4968-a80c-84cf625d72be@leibniz-lib.de> Message-ID: Whale skeletons that have been outside for a century or more still ooze oil. The main hall at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard still has a fine fragrance of it from the whales on display, despite easily that long having elapsed. Part of the experience. Paul Callomon Collection Manager, Malacology and General Invertebrates ________________________________ Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, Philadelphia callomon at ansp.org Tel 215-405-5096 - Fax 215-299-1170 President of the American Malacological Society for 2027 From: Nhcoll-l On Behalf Of Dirk Neumann Sent: Monday, December 15, 2025 9:17 AM To: Vanessa Pitusi ; nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] [EXTERN] Cetacean skeleton issues External. Dear Vanessa, if it is indeed mould (you would easily recognise this from the powdery spores), you can treat this with 70% EtOH. Otherwise, if it is "just" grease, the question would be if conservation treatment is needed. Especially old whales have a lot of grease in their bones, and even if you would degrease the surface, the remaining grease would ooze out again. Which chemical decreasing, you would probably reduce the scientific value of the specimen, because the chemical agents and decreasing procedure would affect the remaining proteins and lipids that might be useful for future research. With best wishes Dirk Am 15.12.2025 um 13:26 schrieb Vanessa Pitusi: Dear Dirk, Thank you for getting back to me and, mould, what a Christmas present ? All the best, Vanessa [cid:image001.png at 01DC6DA4.0D19EFE0] From: Nhcoll-l On Behalf Of Dirk Neumann Sent: Monday, December 15, 2025 12:49 PM To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] [EXTERN] Cetacean skeleton issues Dear Vanessa, on a quick look, some seems like intense oil/fat staining, but especially on the second picture it looks like if there would be mould growth on top of the greasy surfaces. With best wishes Dirk Am 15.12.2025 um 12:29 schrieb Vanessa Pitusi: Dear all, I have been going through our cetacean skeletons and have noticed some issues (see photos). Any advice on how to treat such conditions and how long that would take? Kind regards, Vanessa [cid:image001.png at 01DC6DA4.0D19EFE0] _______________________________________________ Nhcoll-l mailing list Nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu https://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/nhcoll-l _______________________________________________ NHCOLL-L is brought to you by the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC), an international society whose mission is to improve the preservation, conservation and management of natural history collections to ensure their continuing value to society. See http://www.spnhc.org for membership information. Advertising on NH-COLL-L is inappropriate. -- **** Dirk Neumann Collection Manager, Hamburg Postal address: Museum of Nature Hamburg Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change Dirk Neumann Martin-Luther-King-Platz 3 20146 Hamburg +49 40 238 317 ? 628 d.neumann at leibniz-lib.de www.leibniz-lib.de -- Stiftung Leibniz-Institut zur Analyse des Biodiversit?tswandels Postanschrift: Adenauerallee 127, 53113 Bonn, Germany Stiftung des ?ffentlichen Rechts; Generaldirektion: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Misof (Generaldirektor), Adrian Gr?ter (Kaufm. Gesch?ftsf?hrer) Sitz der Stiftung: Adenauerallee 160 in Bonn Vorsitzender des Stiftungsrates: Dr. Michael Wappelhorst -- Stiftung Leibniz-Institut zur Analyse des Biodiversit?tswandels Postanschrift: Adenauerallee 127, 53113 Bonn, Germany Stiftung des ?ffentlichen Rechts; Generaldirektion: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Misof (Generaldirektor), Adrian Gr?ter (Kaufm. Gesch?ftsf?hrer) Sitz der Stiftung: Adenauerallee 160 in Bonn Vorsitzender des Stiftungsrates: Dr. Michael H. Wappelhorst -- **** Dirk Neumann Collection Manager, Hamburg Postal address: Museum of Nature Hamburg Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change Dirk Neumann Martin-Luther-King-Platz 3 20146 Hamburg +49 40 238 317 ? 628 d.neumann at leibniz-lib.de www.leibniz-lib.de -- Stiftung Leibniz-Institut zur Analyse des Biodiversit?tswandels Postanschrift: Adenauerallee 127, 53113 Bonn, Germany Stiftung des ?ffentlichen Rechts; Generaldirektion: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Misof (Generaldirektor), Adrian Gr?ter (Kaufm. Gesch?ftsf?hrer) Sitz der Stiftung: Adenauerallee 160 in Bonn Vorsitzender des Stiftungsrates: Dr. Michael Wappelhorst -- Stiftung Leibniz-Institut zur Analyse des Biodiversit?tswandels Postanschrift: Adenauerallee 127, 53113 Bonn, Germany Stiftung des ?ffentlichen Rechts; Generaldirektion: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Misof (Generaldirektor), Adrian Gr?ter (Kaufm. Gesch?ftsf?hrer) Sitz der Stiftung: Adenauerallee 160 in Bonn Vorsitzender des Stiftungsrates: Dr. Michael H. Wappelhorst -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.png Type: image/png Size: 23483 bytes Desc: image001.png URL: From vanessa.pitusi at uit.no Mon Dec 15 09:34:19 2025 From: vanessa.pitusi at uit.no (Vanessa Pitusi) Date: Mon, 15 Dec 2025 14:34:19 +0000 Subject: [Nhcoll-l] [EXTERN] Cetacean skeleton issues In-Reply-To: <738c8f58-06fd-4968-a80c-84cf625d72be@leibniz-lib.de> References: <738c8f58-06fd-4968-a80c-84cf625d72be@leibniz-lib.de> Message-ID: Dear Dirk, I appreciate the additional input! I think for now, we will stick to superficial cleaning ? Thank you and have a good festive season! ? Kind regards, Vanessa [cid:image001.png at 01DC6DD8.46358B70] From: Dirk Neumann Sent: Monday, December 15, 2025 3:17 PM To: Vanessa Pitusi ; nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] [EXTERN] Cetacean skeleton issues Dear Vanessa, if it is indeed mould (you would easily recognise this from the powdery spores), you can treat this with 70% EtOH. Otherwise, if it is "just" grease, the question would be if conservation treatment is needed. Especially old whales have a lot of grease in their bones, and even if you would degrease the surface, the remaining grease would ooze out again. Which chemical decreasing, you would probably reduce the scientific value of the specimen, because the chemical agents and decreasing procedure would affect the remaining proteins and lipids that might be useful for future research. With best wishes Dirk Am 15.12.2025 um 13:26 schrieb Vanessa Pitusi: Dear Dirk, Thank you for getting back to me and, mould, what a Christmas present ? All the best, Vanessa [cid:image001.png at 01DC6DD8.46358B70] From: Nhcoll-l On Behalf Of Dirk Neumann Sent: Monday, December 15, 2025 12:49 PM To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] [EXTERN] Cetacean skeleton issues Dear Vanessa, on a quick look, some seems like intense oil/fat staining, but especially on the second picture it looks like if there would be mould growth on top of the greasy surfaces. With best wishes Dirk Am 15.12.2025 um 12:29 schrieb Vanessa Pitusi: Dear all, I have been going through our cetacean skeletons and have noticed some issues (see photos). Any advice on how to treat such conditions and how long that would take? Kind regards, Vanessa [cid:image001.png at 01DC6DD8.46358B70] _______________________________________________ Nhcoll-l mailing list Nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu https://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/nhcoll-l _______________________________________________ NHCOLL-L is brought to you by the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC), an international society whose mission is to improve the preservation, conservation and management of natural history collections to ensure their continuing value to society. See http://www.spnhc.org for membership information. Advertising on NH-COLL-L is inappropriate. -- **** Dirk Neumann Collection Manager, Hamburg Postal address: Museum of Nature Hamburg Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change Dirk Neumann Martin-Luther-King-Platz 3 20146 Hamburg +49 40 238 317 ? 628 d.neumann at leibniz-lib.de www.leibniz-lib.de -- Stiftung Leibniz-Institut zur Analyse des Biodiversit?tswandels Postanschrift: Adenauerallee 127, 53113 Bonn, Germany Stiftung des ?ffentlichen Rechts; Generaldirektion: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Misof (Generaldirektor), Adrian Gr?ter (Kaufm. Gesch?ftsf?hrer) Sitz der Stiftung: Adenauerallee 160 in Bonn Vorsitzender des Stiftungsrates: Dr. Michael Wappelhorst -- Stiftung Leibniz-Institut zur Analyse des Biodiversit?tswandels Postanschrift: Adenauerallee 127, 53113 Bonn, Germany Stiftung des ?ffentlichen Rechts; Generaldirektion: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Misof (Generaldirektor), Adrian Gr?ter (Kaufm. Gesch?ftsf?hrer) Sitz der Stiftung: Adenauerallee 160 in Bonn Vorsitzender des Stiftungsrates: Dr. Michael H. Wappelhorst -- **** Dirk Neumann Collection Manager, Hamburg Postal address: Museum of Nature Hamburg Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change Dirk Neumann Martin-Luther-King-Platz 3 20146 Hamburg +49 40 238 317 ? 628 d.neumann at leibniz-lib.de www.leibniz-lib.de -- Stiftung Leibniz-Institut zur Analyse des Biodiversit?tswandels Postanschrift: Adenauerallee 127, 53113 Bonn, Germany Stiftung des ?ffentlichen Rechts; Generaldirektion: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Misof (Generaldirektor), Adrian Gr?ter (Kaufm. Gesch?ftsf?hrer) Sitz der Stiftung: Adenauerallee 160 in Bonn Vorsitzender des Stiftungsrates: Dr. Michael Wappelhorst -- Stiftung Leibniz-Institut zur Analyse des Biodiversit?tswandels Postanschrift: Adenauerallee 127, 53113 Bonn, Germany Stiftung des ?ffentlichen Rechts; Generaldirektion: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Misof (Generaldirektor), Adrian Gr?ter (Kaufm. Gesch?ftsf?hrer) Sitz der Stiftung: Adenauerallee 160 in Bonn Vorsitzender des Stiftungsrates: Dr. Michael H. Wappelhorst -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.png Type: image/png Size: 23483 bytes Desc: image001.png URL: From JMGAGNON at nature.ca Mon Dec 15 11:09:58 2025 From: JMGAGNON at nature.ca (Jean-Marc Gagnon) Date: Mon, 15 Dec 2025 16:09:58 +0000 Subject: [Nhcoll-l] IMA-CM International Mineral Collections Survey Message-ID: [cid:image001.png at 01DC6DAE.0B9B81B0] Hi everyone, The IMA Commission on Museums would like to gather more information about the types of museums with mineralogy collections that are in each of your countries, and develop a database of curator/researcher names who work in those museums. Please find below a link to a survey about your mineral/rock/gem, etc. collections. The questions pertain to the types of collections you have, specimen numbers, information about funding (not mandatory if you don't want to share), and use of your collections. IMA-CM International Mineral Collections Survey 2025-2026 - Fill out form There are 31 questions and should take approximately 15 minutes. Please send this email, request and link to all mineralogical/geological museum contacts in your country for whom you have email addresses. Also forward to your local and national mineralogical organizations so that it can be forwarded to their members (i.e. SMMP, or even organizations such as Friends of Mineralogy). The more responses the better! If they are then willing to pass along to their members, that would be great. The survey will be open until January 31st, 2026. Happy Holidays from the executive of the IMA-CM, Paula, Melanie, Oscar and Mike Dr. Paula C. Piilonen Research Scientist, Mineralogy Research & Collections Division Canadian Museum of Nature 613.878.1065 Vice-Chair, International Mineralogical Association Commission on Museums Jean-Marc Gagnon, Ph.D. (il/le/lui - He/him/his) Curator, Invertebrate Collections / Chief Scientist / Director, Beaty Centre for Species Discovery Conservateur, Collection des invert?br?s / Expert scientifique en chef / Directeur, Centre Beaty pour la d?couverte des esp?ces Canadian Museum of Nature / Mus?e canadien de la nature 613 364 4066 613 851-7556 cell 613 364 4027 Fax jmgagnon at nature.ca https://nature.ca/en/research-collections/science-experts/jean-marc-gagnon Adresse postale / Postal Address: Canadian Museum of Nature / Mus?e canadien de la nature P.O. Box 3443, Sta. D / Casier Postal 3443, Succ. D Ottawa, ON K1P 6P4 / Ottawa, ON K1P 6P4 Canada / Canada Adresse de livraison / Courier Address : 1740 Pink Road, Gatineau, QC, J9J 3N7 [https://www.nature.ca/sites/all/themes/realdecoy/images/splash/splash-logo.jpg] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.png Type: image/png Size: 48151 bytes Desc: image001.png URL: From amgunderson at alaska.edu Mon Dec 15 13:58:49 2025 From: amgunderson at alaska.edu (Aren Gunderson) Date: Mon, 15 Dec 2025 09:58:49 -0900 Subject: [Nhcoll-l] [EXTERN] Cetacean skeleton issues In-Reply-To: References: <738c8f58-06fd-4968-a80c-84cf625d72be@leibniz-lib.de> Message-ID: Hi All, We managed to clean 55 year old greasy bowhead whale bones for our skeleton now assembled on exhibit. My how-to from the skeleton build book (available here, https://www.theboneman.com/) is attached. Maceration can do it. Thanks, Aren On Mon, Dec 15, 2025 at 5:20?AM Callomon,Paul wrote: > Whale skeletons that have been outside for a century or more still ooze > oil. The main hall at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard still > has a fine fragrance of it from the whales on display, despite easily that > long having elapsed. Part of the experience. > > > > *Paul Callomon* > *Collection Manager, Malacology and General Invertebrates* > ------------------------------ > > *Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, Philadelphia* > *callomon at ansp.org Tel 215-405-5096 - Fax 215-299-1170* > > *President of the American Malacological Society for 2027* > > > > *From:* Nhcoll-l *On Behalf Of *Dirk > Neumann > *Sent:* Monday, December 15, 2025 9:17 AM > *To:* Vanessa Pitusi ; nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu > *Subject:* Re: [Nhcoll-l] [EXTERN] Cetacean skeleton issues > > > > *External.* > > Dear Vanessa, > > > > if it is indeed mould (you would easily recognise this from the powdery > spores), you can treat this with 70% EtOH. Otherwise, if it is "just" > grease, the question would be if conservation treatment is needed. > > > > Especially old whales have a lot of grease in their bones, and even if you > would degrease the surface, the remaining grease would ooze out again. > Which chemical decreasing, you would probably reduce the scientific value > of the specimen, because the chemical agents and decreasing procedure would > affect the remaining proteins and lipids that might be useful for future > research. > > > > With best wishes > > Dirk > > > > > > Am 15.12.2025 um 13:26 schrieb Vanessa Pitusi: > > Dear Dirk, > > Thank you for getting back to me and, mould, what a Christmas present ? > > All the best, > > Vanessa > > > > *From:* Nhcoll-l > *On Behalf Of *Dirk Neumann > *Sent:* Monday, December 15, 2025 12:49 PM > *To:* nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu > *Subject:* Re: [Nhcoll-l] [EXTERN] Cetacean skeleton issues > > > > Dear Vanessa, > > > > on a quick look, some seems like intense oil/fat staining, but especially > on the second picture it looks like if there would be mould growth on top > of the greasy surfaces. > > > > With best wishes > > Dirk > > > > > > Am 15.12.2025 um 12:29 schrieb Vanessa Pitusi: > > Dear all, > > > > I have been going through our cetacean skeletons and have noticed some > issues (see photos). > > > > Any advice on how to treat such conditions and how long that would take? > > > > Kind regards, > > Vanessa > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Nhcoll-l mailing list > > Nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu > > https://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/nhcoll-l > > > > _______________________________________________ > > NHCOLL-L is brought to you by the Society for the Preservation of > > Natural History Collections (SPNHC), an international society whose > > mission is to improve the preservation, conservation and management of > > natural history collections to ensure their continuing value to > > society. See http://www.spnhc.org for membership information. > > Advertising on NH-COLL-L is inappropriate. > > > > -- > > ****** > > > > *Dirk Neumann* > > Collection Manager, Hamburg > > > > Postal address: > > *Museum of Nature Hamburg* > Leibniz Institute for the Analysis > > of Biodiversity Change > > Dirk Neumann > > Martin-Luther-King-Platz 3 > > 20146 Hamburg > +49 40 238 317 ? 628 > > *d.neumann at leibniz-lib.de * > > www.leibniz-lib.de > > > > -- > Stiftung Leibniz-Institut zur Analyse des Biodiversit?tswandels > Postanschrift: Adenauerallee 127, 53113 Bonn, Germany > > Stiftung des ?ffentlichen Rechts; > Generaldirektion: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Misof (Generaldirektor), Adrian > Gr?ter (Kaufm. Gesch?ftsf?hrer) > Sitz der Stiftung: Adenauerallee 160 in Bonn > Vorsitzender des Stiftungsrates: Dr. Michael Wappelhorst > > > > -- > Stiftung Leibniz-Institut zur Analyse des Biodiversit?tswandels > Postanschrift: Adenauerallee 127, 53113 Bonn, Germany > > Stiftung des ?ffentlichen Rechts; > Generaldirektion: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Misof (Generaldirektor), Adrian > Gr?ter (Kaufm. Gesch?ftsf?hrer) > Sitz der Stiftung: Adenauerallee 160 in Bonn > Vorsitzender des Stiftungsrates: Dr. Michael H. Wappelhorst > > > > -- > > ****** > > > > *Dirk Neumann* > > Collection Manager, Hamburg > > > > Postal address: > > *Museum of Nature Hamburg* > Leibniz Institute for the Analysis > > of Biodiversity Change > > Dirk Neumann > > Martin-Luther-King-Platz 3 > > 20146 Hamburg > +49 40 238 317 ? 628 > > *d.neumann at leibniz-lib.de * > > www.leibniz-lib.de > > > > -- > Stiftung Leibniz-Institut zur Analyse des Biodiversit?tswandels > Postanschrift: Adenauerallee 127, 53113 Bonn, Germany > > Stiftung des ?ffentlichen Rechts; > Generaldirektion: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Misof (Generaldirektor), Adrian > Gr?ter (Kaufm. Gesch?ftsf?hrer) > Sitz der Stiftung: Adenauerallee 160 in Bonn > Vorsitzender des Stiftungsrates: Dr. Michael Wappelhorst > > > > -- > Stiftung Leibniz-Institut zur Analyse des Biodiversit?tswandels > Postanschrift: Adenauerallee 127, 53113 Bonn, Germany > > Stiftung des ?ffentlichen Rechts; > Generaldirektion: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Misof (Generaldirektor), Adrian > Gr?ter (Kaufm. Gesch?ftsf?hrer) > Sitz der Stiftung: Adenauerallee 160 in Bonn > Vorsitzender des Stiftungsrates: Dr. Michael H. Wappelhorst > _______________________________________________ > Nhcoll-l mailing list > Nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu > https://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/nhcoll-l > > _______________________________________________ > NHCOLL-L is brought to you by the Society for the Preservation of > Natural History Collections (SPNHC), an international society whose > mission is to improve the preservation, conservation and management of > natural history collections to ensure their continuing value to > society. See http://www.spnhc.org for membership information. > Advertising on NH-COLL-L is inappropriate. > -- Aren Gunderson Mammal Collection Manager University of Alaska Museum of the North 1962 Yukon Drive Fairbanks, AK 99775 amgunderson at alaska.edu 907-474-6947 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.png Type: image/png Size: 23483 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: bowhead booklet bone cleanng.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 1602635 bytes Desc: not available URL: From couteaufin at btinternet.com Mon Dec 15 18:55:41 2025 From: couteaufin at btinternet.com (Simon Moore) Date: Mon, 15 Dec 2025 23:55:41 +0000 Subject: [Nhcoll-l] [EXTERN] Cetacean skeleton issues In-Reply-To: References: <738c8f58-06fd-4968-a80c-84cf625d72be@leibniz-lib.de> Message-ID: <58BDC018-0042-4011-B06A-ABEA72CDDC28@btinternet.com> While we?re still on this subject, what is the best way to remove, at least, the surface and oxidised oil/grease from cetacean bones? I used to find acetone worked quite well but then further oil started to see through after a few months! With all good wishes, Simon Simon Moore MIScT, RSci, FLS, ACR Conservator of Natural Sciences and Cutlery Historian. www.natural-history-conservation.com > On 15 Dec 2025, at 18:58, Aren Gunderson wrote: > > Hi All, > We managed to clean 55 year old greasy bowhead whale bones for our skeleton now assembled on exhibit. My how-to from the skeleton build book (available here, https://www.theboneman.com/) is attached. Maceration can do it. > Thanks, > Aren > > On Mon, Dec 15, 2025 at 5:20?AM Callomon,Paul wrote: > Whale skeletons that have been outside for a century or more still ooze oil. The main hall at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard still has a fine fragrance of it from the whales on display, despite easily that long having elapsed. Part of the experience. > Paul Callomon > Collection Manager, Malacology and General Invertebrates > Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, Philadelphia > callomon at ansp.org Tel 215-405-5096 - Fax 215-299-1170 > President of the American Malacological Society for 2027 > From: Nhcoll-l On Behalf Of Dirk Neumann > Sent: Monday, December 15, 2025 9:17 AM > To: Vanessa Pitusi ; nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu > Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] [EXTERN] Cetacean skeleton issues > External. > Dear Vanessa, > if it is indeed mould (you would easily recognise this from the powdery spores), you can treat this with 70% EtOH. Otherwise, if it is "just" grease, the question would be if conservation treatment is needed. > Especially old whales have a lot of grease in their bones, and even if you would degrease the surface, the remaining grease would ooze out again. Which chemical decreasing, you would probably reduce the scientific value of the specimen, because the chemical agents and decreasing procedure would affect the remaining proteins and lipids that might be useful for future research. > With best wishes > Dirk > Am 15.12.2025 um 13:26 schrieb Vanessa Pitusi: > Dear Dirk, > Thank you for getting back to me and, mould, what a Christmas present ? All the best, > Vanessa > From: Nhcoll-l On Behalf Of Dirk Neumann > Sent: Monday, December 15, 2025 12:49 PM > To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu > Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] [EXTERN] Cetacean skeleton issues > Dear Vanessa, > on a quick look, some seems like intense oil/fat staining, but especially on the second picture it looks like if there would be mould growth on top of the greasy surfaces. > With best wishes > Dirk > Am 15.12.2025 um 12:29 schrieb Vanessa Pitusi: > Dear all, > I have been going through our cetacean skeletons and have noticed some issues (see photos). > Any advice on how to treat such conditions and how long that would take? > Kind regards, > Vanessa > > > > _______________________________________________ > Nhcoll-l mailing list > Nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu > https://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/nhcoll-l > > _______________________________________________ > NHCOLL-L is brought to you by the Society for the Preservation of > Natural History Collections (SPNHC), an international society whose > mission is to improve the preservation, conservation and management of > natural history collections to ensure their continuing value to > society. See http://www.spnhc.org for membership information. > Advertising on NH-COLL-L is inappropriate. > -- > **** > Dirk Neumann > Collection Manager, Hamburg > Postal address: > Museum of Nature Hamburg > Leibniz Institute for the Analysis > of Biodiversity Change > Dirk Neumann > Martin-Luther-King-Platz 3 > 20146 Hamburg > +49 40 238 317 ? 628 > d.neumann at leibniz-lib.de > www.leibniz-lib.de > -- > Stiftung Leibniz-Institut zur Analyse des Biodiversit?tswandels > Postanschrift: Adenauerallee 127, 53113 Bonn, Germany > > Stiftung des ?ffentlichen Rechts; > Generaldirektion: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Misof (Generaldirektor), Adrian Gr?ter (Kaufm. Gesch?ftsf?hrer) > Sitz der Stiftung: Adenauerallee 160 in Bonn > Vorsitzender des Stiftungsrates: Dr. Michael Wappelhorst > -- > Stiftung Leibniz-Institut zur Analyse des Biodiversit?tswandels > Postanschrift: Adenauerallee 127, 53113 Bonn, Germany > > Stiftung des ?ffentlichen Rechts; > Generaldirektion: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Misof (Generaldirektor), Adrian Gr?ter (Kaufm. Gesch?ftsf?hrer) > Sitz der Stiftung: Adenauerallee 160 in Bonn > Vorsitzender des Stiftungsrates: Dr. Michael H. Wappelhorst > -- > **** > Dirk Neumann > Collection Manager, Hamburg > Postal address: > Museum of Nature Hamburg > Leibniz Institute for the Analysis > of Biodiversity Change > Dirk Neumann > Martin-Luther-King-Platz 3 > 20146 Hamburg > +49 40 238 317 ? 628 > d.neumann at leibniz-lib.de > www.leibniz-lib.de > -- > Stiftung Leibniz-Institut zur Analyse des Biodiversit?tswandels > Postanschrift: Adenauerallee 127, 53113 Bonn, Germany > > Stiftung des ?ffentlichen Rechts; > Generaldirektion: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Misof (Generaldirektor), Adrian Gr?ter (Kaufm. Gesch?ftsf?hrer) > Sitz der Stiftung: Adenauerallee 160 in Bonn > Vorsitzender des Stiftungsrates: Dr. Michael Wappelhorst > -- > Stiftung Leibniz-Institut zur Analyse des Biodiversit?tswandels > Postanschrift: Adenauerallee 127, 53113 Bonn, Germany > > Stiftung des ?ffentlichen Rechts; > Generaldirektion: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Misof (Generaldirektor), Adrian Gr?ter (Kaufm. Gesch?ftsf?hrer) > Sitz der Stiftung: Adenauerallee 160 in Bonn > Vorsitzender des Stiftungsrates: Dr. Michael H. Wappelhorst > _______________________________________________ > Nhcoll-l mailing list > Nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu > https://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/nhcoll-l > > _______________________________________________ > NHCOLL-L is brought to you by the Society for the Preservation of > Natural History Collections (SPNHC), an international society whose > mission is to improve the preservation, conservation and management of > natural history collections to ensure their continuing value to > society. See http://www.spnhc.org for membership information. > Advertising on NH-COLL-L is inappropriate. > > > -- > Aren Gunderson > Mammal Collection Manager > University of Alaska Museum of the North > 1962 Yukon Drive > Fairbanks, AK 99775 > amgunderson at alaska.edu > 907-474-6947 > _______________________________________________ > Nhcoll-l mailing list > Nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu > https://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/nhcoll-l > > _______________________________________________ > NHCOLL-L is brought to you by the Society for the Preservation of > Natural History Collections (SPNHC), an international society whose > mission is to improve the preservation, conservation and management of > natural history collections to ensure their continuing value to > society. See http://www.spnhc.org for membership information. > Advertising on NH-COLL-L is inappropriate. From Rodrigo.Pellegrini at sos.nj.gov Tue Dec 16 15:23:22 2025 From: Rodrigo.Pellegrini at sos.nj.gov (Pellegrini, Rodrigo [DOS]) Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2025 20:23:22 +0000 Subject: [Nhcoll-l] Entomology taxonomy for database Message-ID: Hello Deborah, Thank you very much for this. We?re giving it a try. It took a while to cull the list, but I think we got what we needed. Thank you also to everyone else that replied and offered their files (Nathalie, Christine, and others?I apologize if I?ve left your name out). I may be in touch depending on how our trials with the GBIF dataset go. I imported it to EMU, but the file was so large excel truncated it, and I may have missed something. Time will tell as we move forward cataloging our bugs! All the best, Rod [cid:image001.jpg at 01DC6E9F.D3F70930] Telework on Thursdays From: Deborah Paul Sent: Friday, December 12, 2025 1:44 PM To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu Cc: Pellegrini, Rodrigo [DOS] Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: [Nhcoll-l] Entomology taxonomy for database *** CAUTION *** This message came from an EXTERNAL address (dlpaul at illinois.edu). DO NOT click on links or attachments unless you know the sender and the content is safe. New Jersey State Government Employees Should Forward Messages That May Be Cyber Security Risks To PhishReport at cyber.nj.gov. Hi Rod, Glad to hear you have a paleoentomologist with you. You can get names and taxonomy you need from Catalogue of Life via their exporter. 1. You will need a GBIF account (do you have one? they are instant to get) to Login. 2. Log in to Checklist Bank (where COL datasets live, to search and download). https://www.checklistbank.org/ 3. Go to "Datasets" and find the most recent "Annual Release" (this one: https://www.checklistbank.org/dataset/310463/about) [cid:image002.png at 01DC6E9F.D3F70930] 4. Click on Downloads to generate a download: (see options to pick below); [cid:image003.png at 01DC6E9F.D3F70930] 5. You will get more that you want / need (i. e. classification above Family level). You can of course delete the columns you are not interested in. Please holler if you have questions. The COL team will help. I pinged my colleague Geoff Ower, one of the COL Developers to be sure I've pointed you in a useful direction. Best, Debbie On 12/12/2025 12:10 PM, Pellegrini, Rodrigo [DOS] wrote: Greetings everyone, We are currently making an effort to catalog our entomology collection at the NJSM, ... A paleoentomologist recently joined our ranks, and has been identifying, re-identifying and assigning catalog numbers to our old (recent) insects, and the time to import them into our database, EMU, is nigh. Needless to say, our taxonomy tables in the database lack insect taxonomy. ... I'm wondering if anybody here would be kind enough to share their entomology taxonomy tables as a CSV file, for me to import them into our database. We are hoping to get a file that includes up to the Family level, and we could create the genus species for the species represented in our collections. ... if your database (whatever it may be) can produce a comma-separated-file with understandable headers for the hierarchy (or a key of what the backend name headers correspond to in the hierarchy), I can make it work. It would save us a ton of time, and we would very much appreciate it. Please let me know directly at Rodrigo.Pellegrini at sos.nj.gov if you can help us out. Thank you very much for your time, Rod -- - Deborah Paul, Biodiversity Informatics Community Liaison - Species File Group (INHS), University of Illinois -- Natural History Collections and Museomics NHCM Editor-in-Chief https://nhcm.pensoft.net -- Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) Past Chair 2021-2022 -- Florida State University Courtesy Appointment -- Species File Group and Events https://speciesfilegroup.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 12276 bytes Desc: image001.jpg URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image002.png Type: image/png Size: 74265 bytes Desc: image002.png URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... 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URL: From kamakos at verizon.net Wed Dec 17 17:15:03 2025 From: kamakos at verizon.net (Kathryn Makos) Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2025 17:15:03 -0500 Subject: [Nhcoll-l] Jan 22 and 23rd Virtual 8th Safety and Cultural Heritage Summit References: <002a01dc6fa2$9a0adae0$ce2090a0$.ref@verizon.net> Message-ID: <002a01dc6fa2$9a0adae0$ce2090a0$@verizon.net> RESCHEDULED - 8th Safety and Cultural Heritage Summit Preserving Our Heritage and Protecting Our Health Co-presentations by IH/Safety and Conservation/Collection Care Professionals The Potomac Local Section of the American Industrial Hygiene Association, the Washington Conservation Guild, the Smithsonian Institution's Office of Safety, Health and Environmental Management and the Smithsonian National Collections Program will once again collaborate with the Lunder Conservation Center to host a Virtual Professional Development Seminar with the theme of Control of Health and Safety Hazards in Museums, Historic Sites, Conservation Treatment and Collection Care. Virtual Conference Thursday, January 22 and Friday, January 23, 2026 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm ET ____________________________________________________________________________ _____________ Click here for the list of presentations. Presentations are also listed in the attached announcement. Please register by January 19, 2026 at Summit Registration Registration - $20 Questions? Email SafetyCulturalHeritageSummit at si.edu Previous registrants: You should have received an email with a survey regarding your previous registration. Questions? Contact potomacaihatreasurer at gmail.com Kathryn A Makos MPH CIH-Retired -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 8th Summit Registration Announcement - Rescheduled-1page.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 246882 bytes Desc: not available URL: From thormj at gmail.com Thu Dec 18 07:17:09 2025 From: thormj at gmail.com (Thor Martin Jensen) Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2025 13:17:09 +0100 Subject: [Nhcoll-l] Where should museums draw the line with generative AI? In-Reply-To: References: <80FB4CA4-6C12-47B4-8A2C-A3C0A06CD357@gmail.com> Message-ID: Steven, Thank you for the detailed response. Your examples of AI-generated worksheets and misdirected questions are exactly the kind of failures that concern me. Systems generating content that sounds plausible but fundamentally misunderstands what the institution actually holds or teaches. I appreciate your point about trust. Museums are among the most trusted institutions precisely because visitors know a person with expertise made choices about what to show and how to explain it. Breaking that chain is risky. On your concern about the listserv format, you're right that BCC prevents "reply all." That was unintentional. I genuinely wanted discussion, not just promotion. I should have used a format that allowed group conversation. My mistake. On translation, you're absolutely right that automation has weaknesses, especially with specialized terminology. At Walkie Talkie, we don't just run content through a translator. Museums review and edit translations before publishing. The AI handles the first draft to make 38 languages feasible; curators ensure accuracy. It's a production tool, not a replacement for expertise. Your calculator analogy is useful. AI as efficiency tool is reasonable. AI as creative authority is problematic. The line matters. Best, Thor Martin B?rug Co-founder, Walkie Talkie walkietalk.ie On Wed, Dec 17, 2025 at 9:51?PM Sullivan, Steven wrote: > We've had teachers use AI programs that supposedly analyze our website to > generate grade-appropriate worksheets for the students to fill out while > visiting the galleries. Of course 99% of the information in our galleries > is not on our website. Maybe we would want to change this in the future as > the web and its use evolves but, presently, the bot/app has no idea what to > productively compose, based on our site. This does not stop a LLM from > generating 10-20 questions, though. > > At best, the AI questions are answerable but don't relate to anything in > our institution (eg, questions about dinosaurs when we have no fossils more > recent than the Silurian, or magnetism when the closest we get is a > magnetic wall that holds pictures in place to allow visitors to tell a > story about the prairie). Many of the questions are contextually > pointless: "Why does the museum use magnets to teach?" Often, though, the > sentences are arguably grammatically correct but conceptually convoluted: > "How can taxidermists address resource management and climate change in > biomes? > > Similarly, much of the information visitors get from AI is simply wrong. > It seems the longer the conversation, the more incorrect or misdirected the > results get, the more they may support misapprehensions (like snakes will > chase you, bear encounters are deadly, and outdoor domesticated cats can > integrate with natural ecosystems.) Granted, Wikipedia used to have a > mistake in nearly every natural history article and it's now often pretty > useful. I expect AI to similarly improve. That said, I won't ever publish > or reference a Wikipedia article as I make exhibits, nor should any AI > generated labels ever be used. > > I have found AI to be useful in brainstorming categories, rendering draft > layouts, finding grey literature or other precedent work that can be > inspirational to me but is hard to find online (like policy and procedure > papers) and otherwise automating draft tasks. It can also interpret > cursive handwriting well enough to help me get unstuck, and as a > translation aid, but the transcriptions of both are still full of > mistakes. > > Like a calculator, AI might have value in the creation process. But, the > way a calculator is used, it is not necessary to cite it and the operator > needs to understand the operations they are automating with the tool. If > the use of AI goes beyond that of an efficiency tool to that of a creative > tool, it must be cited, but it also probably shouldn't be used. The > abhorrent AI exhibit at the San Francisco airport is an example that puts > our whole industry at risk. Most of our visitors find us among the most > trustworthy of institutions. Many of our visitors recognize that > publically accessible AI information is mostly trash (and with that > exhibit, find the deficiencies in "professional" AI, too). They also value > the human hand in our creative products. At the very least, to maintain > the public trust, it's important for us to minimize AI content in any > published work. > > The number one question we get is "Is this real?" We should be able to > answer "Yes" for both objects and their labels and data. AI can't ever do > that. > > I wrote all of the above before noticing your disclaimer line. Maybe > translation is useful. I used to be a translator, though, and have found > weakness in all automation I've ever tried, especially when nuance and > specialization are required. That said, you used our industry listserv to > spam us, since there is no "reply all" button; seeing that I was only > replying to you made me look closer at the sub-signature bits. This makes > it seem like you are not interested in actual public discussion, just > promotion. This seems to align with the perception that AI, its users, and > creators, are largely bad actors in a variety of ways. I have not included > the listserv address because maybe you just don't know how to work the > technology and didn't intend to spam us and will rectify the issue and > engage in actual discussion. It's an important topic that is proceeding > faster than policy or awareness and so far, at least in my institution, > causes more problems than solutions. > > --Steve > > On Wed, Dec 17, 2025 at 1:00?PM Thor Martin Jensen > wrote: > >> Hi all, >> >> A growing number of startups are building museum solutions built entirely >> on AI-generated interpretation. Visitors ask questions, and a language >> model generates personalized explanations on the fly. >> >> This fundamentally changes what a museum is. Instead of encountering >> institutional expertise, visitors receive algorithmic predictions optimized >> for engagement. The museum?s voice, built on research and accountability, >> gets replaced by pattern matching across training data that the institution >> never reviewed. >> >> These systems cannot cite their sources because there are no sources. >> They generate probable-sounding answers, not verified ones. When they get >> something wrong, no one is accountable because no person actually made the >> claim. >> >> A few questions I keep returning to: >> Where does production end and interpretation begin? Translation and >> transcription clearly help museums reach more people. But generating >> explanations of objects based on visitor questions? >> >> Who is responsible when AI interpretation misleads visitors? The museum? >> The vendor? The curator who approved the tool? >> Should museums disclose when interpretation is AI-generated? If we hide >> it, we break trust. If we reveal it, do visitors trust it less? >> >> What happens to institutional authority when knowledge becomes >> untraceable to human expertise? >> >> I wrote more here: >> https://www.linkedin.com/posts/walkietalk-ie_museums-curation-audioguides-activity-7407049070478852096-KUfB >> >> How are others thinking about this? >> >> Best, >> Thor Martin B?rug >> Co-founder, Walkie Talkie >> walkietalk.ie >> >> *Full disclosure: I run Walkie Talkie, a multilingual audio guide >> platform for museums. We use AI for translation and text-to-speech but keep >> all interpretation with museum staff. I have a commercial interest in how >> this question gets answered, but I genuinely want to hear how the field is >> thinking about these boundaries.* >> _______________________________________________ >> Nhcoll-l mailing list >> Nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu >> https://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/nhcoll-l >> >> _______________________________________________ >> NHCOLL-L is brought to you by the Society for the Preservation of >> Natural History Collections (SPNHC), an international society whose >> mission is to improve the preservation, conservation and management of >> natural history collections to ensure their continuing value to >> society. See http://www.spnhc.org for membership information. >> Advertising on NH-COLL-L is inappropriate. >> > > > -- > > > > Steven M. Sullivan > > Director | Hefner Museum of Natural History > > > Miami University > > 100 Upham Hall > > 100 Bishop Circle > > Oxford, OH 45056 > > Museum: 513-529-4617 > > Cell: 708-937-6253 > > > The Museum is open to the public weekdays 9-4, free admission. > > Support the Museum today! > > > > *Connecting you to the nature in your neighborhood...and the world.* > > > Miami's many museums and collections > provide unique, > cross-disciplinary opportunities for students, educators, and the public. > > > The Hefner Museum recognizes the Myaamia and Shawnee people who, along > with other indigenous groups, were the first stewards of this land's > biodiversity. > > > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From sulliv55 at miamioh.edu Thu Dec 18 10:13:44 2025 From: sulliv55 at miamioh.edu (Sullivan, Steven) Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2025 10:13:44 -0500 Subject: [Nhcoll-l] Where should museums draw the line with generative AI? In-Reply-To: References: <80FB4CA4-6C12-47B4-8A2C-A3C0A06CD357@gmail.com> Message-ID: Thanks for engaging in further discussion. I'm not worried about a tool that helps an expert be more efficient. A transcript that can be vetted by the writer or team is useful, whether written by a human or AI, but the final product needs to be a human product, especially anything published in a museum context. AI images have similar issues. If a real artist wants to use AI to explore compositions, great. I don't see a difference between that and cutting our magazine pictures or sketching from life when it's the brainstorming stage. But the images used in the exhibit should be creditable to a human expert. The SF airport example should have never made it beyond a workshop draft. Even analog recreations have challenges. In one of my galleries, there is an enlarged to show detail mouse recreation. To my eye, it looks like a good-quality child's toy. Many (maybe most) visitors can't identify or describe any particular feature that looks fake; they think it is real. As a result, questions about (and emotional responses to) giant mice become central to the exhibit, distracting from the intended points. As signs noting that this diorama is fake get bigger and more prominent, our pedagogical goals are better realized. Our visitors trust us, and whatever happens in our institutions. We have to find ways to help them differentiate between fake and real. So many of our visitors engage with AI without any training in its pitfalls, yet it is packaged in a way that seems trustworthy and fun, and it's often given logistical preference over any other research tools. I would not be surprised to find (this is a study that could be done) that AI/LLM search results pulled up at a museum are deemed more accurate than in some other setting. If anything, museums should be pushing against some uses of AI because it's not possible to ensure accurate results from the interfaces they use (eg LLMs, digital assistants). It seems the average visitor is more likely to misunderstand our exhibits because of most current AI use, since there's often few useful answers but scores of red herrings and wrong answers. The analog training we can provide is often key to obtaining accurate digital results. On a public nature walk, I encouraged people to track our observations using an app that uses AI to make identifications. When I use the app, it is often pretty accurate, approaching 100% for some taxa. However, when I reviewed the identifications with individuals on trail and later looked at the uploaded aggregate, a large percentage of the AI-generated IDs were wrong. Sometimes they were wildly wrong, like an insect being IDed as a plant. Unsurprisingly, the quality of the photo matters and many people, despite having amazing and simple to use cameras, can't take a good/useful picture. Visitors often don't know enough to input data (be it images or queries) effectively *and* they don't know enough to vet the information AI returns. You might think that everyone can tell the difference between a plant and an animal, but katydids exist so a marmorated stinkbug identified as a sycamore means, to a user who is newly learning, that walking sycamore leaves must be real, too. Museums are the stewards of authentic objects that allow humanity to objectively understand parts of the past, interpret the present, and anticipate the future. AI, as a tool, may support this in many ways, but front-of-house, direct-to-consumer AI, or whole-cloth AI products in our galleries damages all of this. --Steve On Thu, Dec 18, 2025 at 7:17?AM Thor Martin Jensen wrote: > Steven, > > Thank you for the detailed response. Your examples of AI-generated > worksheets and misdirected questions are exactly the kind of failures that > concern me. Systems generating content that sounds plausible but > fundamentally misunderstands what the institution actually holds or teaches. > > I appreciate your point about trust. Museums are among the most trusted > institutions precisely because visitors know a person with expertise made > choices about what to show and how to explain it. Breaking that chain is > risky. > > On your concern about the listserv format, you're right that BCC prevents > "reply all." That was unintentional. I genuinely wanted discussion, not > just promotion. I should have used a format that allowed group > conversation. My mistake. > > On translation, you're absolutely right that automation has weaknesses, > especially with specialized terminology. At Walkie Talkie, we don't just > run content through a translator. Museums review and edit translations > before publishing. The AI handles the first draft to make 38 languages > feasible; curators ensure accuracy. It's a production tool, not a > replacement for expertise. > > Your calculator analogy is useful. AI as efficiency tool is reasonable. AI > as creative authority is problematic. The line matters. > Best, > Thor Martin B?rug > Co-founder, Walkie Talkie > walkietalk.ie > > > On Wed, Dec 17, 2025 at 9:51?PM Sullivan, Steven > wrote: > >> We've had teachers use AI programs that supposedly analyze our website to >> generate grade-appropriate worksheets for the students to fill out while >> visiting the galleries. Of course 99% of the information in our galleries >> is not on our website. Maybe we would want to change this in the future as >> the web and its use evolves but, presently, the bot/app has no idea what to >> productively compose, based on our site. This does not stop a LLM from >> generating 10-20 questions, though. >> >> At best, the AI questions are answerable but don't relate to anything in >> our institution (eg, questions about dinosaurs when we have no fossils more >> recent than the Silurian, or magnetism when the closest we get is a >> magnetic wall that holds pictures in place to allow visitors to tell a >> story about the prairie). Many of the questions are contextually >> pointless: "Why does the museum use magnets to teach?" Often, though, the >> sentences are arguably grammatically correct but conceptually convoluted: >> "How can taxidermists address resource management and climate change in >> biomes? >> >> Similarly, much of the information visitors get from AI is simply wrong. >> It seems the longer the conversation, the more incorrect or misdirected the >> results get, the more they may support misapprehensions (like snakes will >> chase you, bear encounters are deadly, and outdoor domesticated cats can >> integrate with natural ecosystems.) Granted, Wikipedia used to have a >> mistake in nearly every natural history article and it's now often pretty >> useful. I expect AI to similarly improve. That said, I won't ever publish >> or reference a Wikipedia article as I make exhibits, nor should any AI >> generated labels ever be used. >> >> I have found AI to be useful in brainstorming categories, rendering draft >> layouts, finding grey literature or other precedent work that can be >> inspirational to me but is hard to find online (like policy and procedure >> papers) and otherwise automating draft tasks. It can also interpret >> cursive handwriting well enough to help me get unstuck, and as a >> translation aid, but the transcriptions of both are still full of >> mistakes. >> >> Like a calculator, AI might have value in the creation process. But, the >> way a calculator is used, it is not necessary to cite it and the operator >> needs to understand the operations they are automating with the tool. If >> the use of AI goes beyond that of an efficiency tool to that of a creative >> tool, it must be cited, but it also probably shouldn't be used. The >> abhorrent AI exhibit at the San Francisco airport is an example that puts >> our whole industry at risk. Most of our visitors find us among the most >> trustworthy of institutions. Many of our visitors recognize that >> publically accessible AI information is mostly trash (and with that >> exhibit, find the deficiencies in "professional" AI, too). They also value >> the human hand in our creative products. At the very least, to maintain >> the public trust, it's important for us to minimize AI content in any >> published work. >> >> The number one question we get is "Is this real?" We should be able to >> answer "Yes" for both objects and their labels and data. AI can't ever do >> that. >> >> I wrote all of the above before noticing your disclaimer line. Maybe >> translation is useful. I used to be a translator, though, and have found >> weakness in all automation I've ever tried, especially when nuance and >> specialization are required. That said, you used our industry listserv to >> spam us, since there is no "reply all" button; seeing that I was only >> replying to you made me look closer at the sub-signature bits. This makes >> it seem like you are not interested in actual public discussion, just >> promotion. This seems to align with the perception that AI, its users, and >> creators, are largely bad actors in a variety of ways. I have not included >> the listserv address because maybe you just don't know how to work the >> technology and didn't intend to spam us and will rectify the issue and >> engage in actual discussion. It's an important topic that is proceeding >> faster than policy or awareness and so far, at least in my institution, >> causes more problems than solutions. >> >> --Steve >> >> On Wed, Dec 17, 2025 at 1:00?PM Thor Martin Jensen >> wrote: >> >>> Hi all, >>> >>> A growing number of startups are building museum solutions built >>> entirely on AI-generated interpretation. Visitors ask questions, and a >>> language model generates personalized explanations on the fly. >>> >>> This fundamentally changes what a museum is. Instead of encountering >>> institutional expertise, visitors receive algorithmic predictions optimized >>> for engagement. The museum?s voice, built on research and accountability, >>> gets replaced by pattern matching across training data that the institution >>> never reviewed. >>> >>> These systems cannot cite their sources because there are no sources. >>> They generate probable-sounding answers, not verified ones. When they get >>> something wrong, no one is accountable because no person actually made the >>> claim. >>> >>> A few questions I keep returning to: >>> Where does production end and interpretation begin? Translation and >>> transcription clearly help museums reach more people. But generating >>> explanations of objects based on visitor questions? >>> >>> Who is responsible when AI interpretation misleads visitors? The museum? >>> The vendor? The curator who approved the tool? >>> Should museums disclose when interpretation is AI-generated? If we hide >>> it, we break trust. If we reveal it, do visitors trust it less? >>> >>> What happens to institutional authority when knowledge becomes >>> untraceable to human expertise? >>> >>> I wrote more here: >>> https://www.linkedin.com/posts/walkietalk-ie_museums-curation-audioguides-activity-7407049070478852096-KUfB >>> >>> How are others thinking about this? >>> >>> Best, >>> Thor Martin B?rug >>> Co-founder, Walkie Talkie >>> walkietalk.ie >>> >>> *Full disclosure: I run Walkie Talkie, a multilingual audio guide >>> platform for museums. We use AI for translation and text-to-speech but keep >>> all interpretation with museum staff. I have a commercial interest in how >>> this question gets answered, but I genuinely want to hear how the field is >>> thinking about these boundaries.* >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Nhcoll-l mailing list >>> Nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu >>> https://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/nhcoll-l >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> NHCOLL-L is brought to you by the Society for the Preservation of >>> Natural History Collections (SPNHC), an international society whose >>> mission is to improve the preservation, conservation and management of >>> natural history collections to ensure their continuing value to >>> society. See http://www.spnhc.org for membership information. >>> Advertising on NH-COLL-L is inappropriate. >>> >> >> >> -- >> >> >> >> Steven M. Sullivan >> >> Director | Hefner Museum of Natural History >> >> >> Miami University >> >> 100 Upham Hall >> >> 100 Bishop Circle >> >> Oxford, OH 45056 >> >> Museum: 513-529-4617 >> >> Cell: 708-937-6253 >> >> >> The Museum is open to the public weekdays 9-4, free admission. >> >> Support the Museum today! >> >> >> >> *Connecting you to the nature in your neighborhood...and the world.* >> >> >> Miami's many museums and collections >> provide unique, >> cross-disciplinary opportunities for students, educators, and the public. >> >> >> The Hefner Museum recognizes the Myaamia and Shawnee people who, along >> with other indigenous groups, were the first stewards of this land's >> biodiversity. >> >> >> >> -- Steven M. Sullivan Director | Hefner Museum of Natural History Miami University 100 Upham Hall 100 Bishop Circle Oxford, OH 45056 Museum: 513-529-4617 Cell: 708-937-6253 The Museum is open to the public weekdays 9-4, free admission. Support the Museum today! *Connecting you to the nature in your neighborhood...and the world.* Miami's many museums and collections provide unique, cross-disciplinary opportunities for students, educators, and the public. The Hefner Museum recognizes the Myaamia and Shawnee people who, along with other indigenous groups, were the first stewards of this land's biodiversity. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tschioette at snm.ku.dk Fri Dec 19 04:13:43 2025 From: tschioette at snm.ku.dk (=?utf-8?B?VG9tIFNjaGnDuHR0ZQ==?=) Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2025 09:13:43 +0000 Subject: [Nhcoll-l] Where should museums draw the line with generative AI? In-Reply-To: References: <80FB4CA4-6C12-47B4-8A2C-A3C0A06CD357@gmail.com> Message-ID: Not on exhibitions, but close: Here in Denmark we recently had an example of a new book for children, officially authored by a well known and well liked person who has previously done books and nature TV programs for smaller children, usually on a sound natural history basis. This time was different. The book was about animals that get out of zoos and what that can lead to, and as a children?s book of course it had to depend heavily on its illustrations. But adequate photos were not available, and human artists are expensive, so the (also well known and respected) publisher agreed with the author to let AI do the illustrations. It was a disaster. Antelopes and deer with five legs, a hyena with hooves, a bear with a set of teeth that seems to come out of an ?Alien? movie and so forth. A man who seems to be eating his own hand. The author claims that he had looked it over and corrected some things like a tiger with horizontal stripes, but that he had been caught by the novelty of the idea, and the book was released and published. There was an uproar from zoologists and parents alike, and the usually popular author had the unusual experience to have enraged parents calling him on the phone, also because the AI had been very imaginative and taken the horror and splatter elements of the stories seriously. The publishing company say that they learned a lesson, and the author says likewise. The good and noteworthy thing here is that nobody tried to shrug the thing off and say they were not responsible. They were. AI is a tool, and you are responsible for what it has generated for you when you afterwards release it. The book in question was pulled back from the market and will now be remade with human-made illustrations. Those who bought the horror-version will have an opportunity to have it exchanged with the new one, free of charge of course. Cheers Tom Schi?tte Senior Collections Manager, Echinodermata & Mollusca Natural History Museum of Denmark (Zoology) Universitetsparken 15 DK 2100 Copenhagen OE +45 35 32 10 48 TSchioette at snm.ku.dk From: Nhcoll-l On Behalf Of Sullivan, Steven Sent: 18. december 2025 16:14 To: Thor Martin Jensen Cc: Nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] Where should museums draw the line with generative AI? Du f?r ikke ofte mails fra sulliv55 at miamioh.edu. F? mere at vide om, hvorfor dette er vigtigt Thanks for engaging in further discussion. I'm not worried about a tool that helps an expert be more efficient. A transcript that can be vetted by the writer or team is useful, whether written by a human or AI, but the final product needs to be a human product, especially anything published in a museum context. AI images have similar issues. If a real artist wants to use AI to explore compositions, great. I don't see a difference between that and cutting our magazine pictures or sketching from life when it's the brainstorming stage. But the images used in the exhibit should be creditable to a human expert. The SF airport example should have never made it beyond a workshop draft. Even analog recreations have challenges. In one of my galleries, there is an enlarged to show detail mouse recreation. To my eye, it looks like a good-quality child's toy. Many (maybe most) visitors can't identify or describe any particular feature that looks fake; they think it is real. As a result, questions about (and emotional responses to) giant mice become central to the exhibit, distracting from the intended points. As signs noting that this diorama is fake get bigger and more prominent, our pedagogical goals are better realized. Our visitors trust us, and whatever happens in our institutions. We have to find ways to help them differentiate between fake and real. So many of our visitors engage with AI without any training in its pitfalls, yet it is packaged in a way that seems trustworthy and fun, and it's often given logistical preference over any other research tools. I would not be surprised to find (this is a study that could be done) that AI/LLM search results pulled up at a museum are deemed more accurate than in some other setting. If anything, museums should be pushing against some uses of AI because it's not possible to ensure accurate results from the interfaces they use (eg LLMs, digital assistants). It seems the average visitor is more likely to misunderstand our exhibits because of most current AI use, since there's often few useful answers but scores of red herrings and wrong answers. The analog training we can provide is often key to obtaining accurate digital results. On a public nature walk, I encouraged people to track our observations using an app that uses AI to make identifications. When I use the app, it is often pretty accurate, approaching 100% for some taxa. However, when I reviewed the identifications with individuals on trail and later looked at the uploaded aggregate, a large percentage of the AI-generated IDs were wrong. Sometimes they were wildly wrong, like an insect being IDed as a plant. Unsurprisingly, the quality of the photo matters and many people, despite having amazing and simple to use cameras, can't take a good/useful picture. Visitors often don't know enough to input data (be it images or queries) effectively *and* they don't know enough to vet the information AI returns. You might think that everyone can tell the difference between a plant and an animal, but katydids exist so a marmorated stinkbug identified as a sycamore means, to a user who is newly learning, that walking sycamore leaves must be real, too. Museums are the stewards of authentic objects that allow humanity to objectively understand parts of the past, interpret the present, and anticipate the future. AI, as a tool, may support this in many ways, but front-of-house, direct-to-consumer AI, or whole-cloth AI products in our galleries damages all of this. --Steve On Thu, Dec 18, 2025 at 7:17?AM Thor Martin Jensen > wrote: Steven, Thank you for the detailed response. Your examples of AI-generated worksheets and misdirected questions are exactly the kind of failures that concern me. Systems generating content that sounds plausible but fundamentally misunderstands what the institution actually holds or teaches. I appreciate your point about trust. Museums are among the most trusted institutions precisely because visitors know a person with expertise made choices about what to show and how to explain it. Breaking that chain is risky. On your concern about the listserv format, you're right that BCC prevents "reply all." That was unintentional. I genuinely wanted discussion, not just promotion. I should have used a format that allowed group conversation. My mistake. On translation, you're absolutely right that automation has weaknesses, especially with specialized terminology. At Walkie Talkie, we don't just run content through a translator. Museums review and edit translations before publishing. The AI handles the first draft to make 38 languages feasible; curators ensure accuracy. It's a production tool, not a replacement for expertise. Your calculator analogy is useful. AI as efficiency tool is reasonable. AI as creative authority is problematic. The line matters. Best, Thor Martin B?rug Co-founder, Walkie Talkie walkietalk.ie On Wed, Dec 17, 2025 at 9:51?PM Sullivan, Steven > wrote: We've had teachers use AI programs that supposedly analyze our website to generate grade-appropriate worksheets for the students to fill out while visiting the galleries. Of course 99% of the information in our galleries is not on our website. Maybe we would want to change this in the future as the web and its use evolves but, presently, the bot/app has no idea what to productively compose, based on our site. This does not stop a LLM from generating 10-20 questions, though. At best, the AI questions are answerable but don't relate to anything in our institution (eg, questions about dinosaurs when we have no fossils more recent than the Silurian, or magnetism when the closest we get is a magnetic wall that holds pictures in place to allow visitors to tell a story about the prairie). Many of the questions are contextually pointless: "Why does the museum use magnets to teach?" Often, though, the sentences are arguably grammatically correct but conceptually convoluted: "How can taxidermists address resource management and climate change in biomes? Similarly, much of the information visitors get from AI is simply wrong. It seems the longer the conversation, the more incorrect or misdirected the results get, the more they may support misapprehensions (like snakes will chase you, bear encounters are deadly, and outdoor domesticated cats can integrate with natural ecosystems.) Granted, Wikipedia used to have a mistake in nearly every natural history article and it's now often pretty useful. I expect AI to similarly improve. That said, I won't ever publish or reference a Wikipedia article as I make exhibits, nor should any AI generated labels ever be used. I have found AI to be useful in brainstorming categories, rendering draft layouts, finding grey literature or other precedent work that can be inspirational to me but is hard to find online (like policy and procedure papers) and otherwise automating draft tasks. It can also interpret cursive handwriting well enough to help me get unstuck, and as a translation aid, but the transcriptions of both are still full of mistakes. Like a calculator, AI might have value in the creation process. But, the way a calculator is used, it is not necessary to cite it and the operator needs to understand the operations they are automating with the tool. If the use of AI goes beyond that of an efficiency tool to that of a creative tool, it must be cited, but it also probably shouldn't be used. The abhorrent AI exhibit at the San Francisco airport is an example that puts our whole industry at risk. Most of our visitors find us among the most trustworthy of institutions. Many of our visitors recognize that publically accessible AI information is mostly trash (and with that exhibit, find the deficiencies in "professional" AI, too). They also value the human hand in our creative products. At the very least, to maintain the public trust, it's important for us to minimize AI content in any published work. The number one question we get is "Is this real?" We should be able to answer "Yes" for both objects and their labels and data. AI can't ever do that. I wrote all of the above before noticing your disclaimer line. Maybe translation is useful. I used to be a translator, though, and have found weakness in all automation I've ever tried, especially when nuance and specialization are required. That said, you used our industry listserv to spam us, since there is no "reply all" button; seeing that I was only replying to you made me look closer at the sub-signature bits. This makes it seem like you are not interested in actual public discussion, just promotion. This seems to align with the perception that AI, its users, and creators, are largely bad actors in a variety of ways. I have not included the listserv address because maybe you just don't know how to work the technology and didn't intend to spam us and will rectify the issue and engage in actual discussion. It's an important topic that is proceeding faster than policy or awareness and so far, at least in my institution, causes more problems than solutions. --Steve On Wed, Dec 17, 2025 at 1:00?PM Thor Martin Jensen > wrote: Hi all, A growing number of startups are building museum solutions built entirely on AI-generated interpretation. Visitors ask questions, and a language model generates personalized explanations on the fly. This fundamentally changes what a museum is. Instead of encountering institutional expertise, visitors receive algorithmic predictions optimized for engagement. The museum?s voice, built on research and accountability, gets replaced by pattern matching across training data that the institution never reviewed. These systems cannot cite their sources because there are no sources. They generate probable-sounding answers, not verified ones. When they get something wrong, no one is accountable because no person actually made the claim. A few questions I keep returning to: Where does production end and interpretation begin? Translation and transcription clearly help museums reach more people. But generating explanations of objects based on visitor questions? Who is responsible when AI interpretation misleads visitors? The museum? The vendor? The curator who approved the tool? Should museums disclose when interpretation is AI-generated? If we hide it, we break trust. If we reveal it, do visitors trust it less? What happens to institutional authority when knowledge becomes untraceable to human expertise? I wrote more here: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/walkietalk-ie_museums-curation-audioguides-activity-7407049070478852096-KUfB How are others thinking about this? Best, Thor Martin B?rug Co-founder, Walkie Talkie walkietalk.ie Full disclosure: I run Walkie Talkie, a multilingual audio guide platform for museums. We use AI for translation and text-to-speech but keep all interpretation with museum staff. I have a commercial interest in how this question gets answered, but I genuinely want to hear how the field is thinking about these boundaries. _______________________________________________ Nhcoll-l mailing list Nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu https://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/nhcoll-l _______________________________________________ NHCOLL-L is brought to you by the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC), an international society whose mission is to improve the preservation, conservation and management of natural history collections to ensure their continuing value to society. See http://www.spnhc.org/ for membership information. Advertising on NH-COLL-L is inappropriate. -- [https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/XJ5DMP6umr5RXMwwfFxywBX-JWsf-WNO39lXVO_domBk1a31KpJbIP67S7iE696m7zJdc0E-5gkkVN9LmVeJmxZ3aXNXnONxaFSZi-fX8Kmv1mjcV2dETLlXyxGzYYjwYAw9pcaM] Steven M. Sullivan Director | Hefner Museum of Natural History Miami University 100 Upham Hall 100 Bishop Circle Oxford, OH 45056 Museum: 513-529-4617 Cell: 708-937-6253 The Museum is open to the public weekdays 9-4, free admission. Support the Museum today! Connecting you to the nature in your neighborhood...and the world. Miami's many museums and collections provide unique, cross-disciplinary opportunities for students, educators, and the public. The Hefner Museum recognizes the Myaamia and Shawnee people who, along with other indigenous groups, were the first stewards of this land's biodiversity. -- [https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/XJ5DMP6umr5RXMwwfFxywBX-JWsf-WNO39lXVO_domBk1a31KpJbIP67S7iE696m7zJdc0E-5gkkVN9LmVeJmxZ3aXNXnONxaFSZi-fX8Kmv1mjcV2dETLlXyxGzYYjwYAw9pcaM] Steven M. Sullivan Director | Hefner Museum of Natural History Miami University 100 Upham Hall 100 Bishop Circle Oxford, OH 45056 Museum: 513-529-4617 Cell: 708-937-6253 The Museum is open to the public weekdays 9-4, free admission. Support the Museum today! Connecting you to the nature in your neighborhood...and the world. Miami's many museums and collections provide unique, cross-disciplinary opportunities for students, educators, and the public. The Hefner Museum recognizes the Myaamia and Shawnee people who, along with other indigenous groups, were the first stewards of this land's biodiversity. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: