SPECIMEN STORAGE, CURATION AND ACCESSIBILITY FOR RESEARCH: A PERSPECTIVE FROM AN AMATEUR COLLECTOR AND MUSEUM COLLECTIONS VOLUNTEER

As president of the Cincinnati Dry Dredgers and a museum collections volunteer, I have seen and experienced the good, the bad and ugly of collecting, curating and accessibility of a myriad of fossils. I know what it means to be a collector – an accumulator of wonderful objects to be displayed and admired by myself and friends. And I know how hard it is to donate special pieces for the benefit of research and lose them from my personal cabinet of curiosities. I have seen the beauty of well curated research collections at the Geier Collections and Research Center and have witnessed what can happen when the storage system is getting full. This presentation will dig into many of these areas and suggest improvements.

I have artificially identified three broad types of collections: Existing museum research collections; orphaned collections; and distributed collections. This last term needs some clarification. Distributed collections are any not currently in an official repository including those in the possession of active collectors and estate collections. I will look at each in turn as they have certain unique characteristics and problems.

Accessibility for researchers is being aided by digital photography and 3-D modelling. Museum collections are being digitized for easy access. But is this the final answer? Digitization provides its own set of issues.

Amateur organizations such as the Dry Dredgers are key players in the solution to the dilemma surrounding distributed collections. Amateurs are the front line workers in public outreach. We outnumber professional workers by orders of magnitude and are better positioned to teach and train the public in proper collecting techniques and curation.

Reasonable solutions to many of these issues are offered for consideration. Key to these will be coordination with amateur organizations.