THE SOCIETY FOR THE PRESERVATION OF NATURAL HISTORY COLLECTIONS (SPNHC): PROMOTING PARTNERSHIP IN THE MANAGEMENT OF FEDERAL COLLECTIONS

The Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC) is an international organization of collection care professionals that promotes stewardship of natural history collections held in the public trust for scientific research and education. SPNHC represents a broad community of people who have responsibility for the management of publiclyowned collections in the U.S.A., including both employees of Federal agencies and collections care staff from non-Federal repositories. Recent initiatives both within and outside government have placed new emphasis on the vital importance of these collections as mission-critical science infrastructure for the Nation. At the same time, they have highlighted the many challenges the community faces in improving standards of collection care, documentation, accountability, and usage. This talk will discuss some of the most commonly-encountered problems and the ways in which SPNHC is working to improve communication and collaboration.