The US National Science Foundation has awarded a Research Coordination Grant entitled: Building a National Community of Natural History Collections.
The purpose of the RCN is to build a strong scientific community to better serve researchers in systematics, biodiversity, and other fields that use natural history collections.
Three professional organizations, the American Institute of Biological Sciences, the Natural Science Collections Alliance, and the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections will provide strong support as partners in the RCN, and many other societies have already built ties with the RCN by appointing Core Participants.
The RCN has the following objectives:
Identify the institutions and people that will define our community and facilitate dialogue among them about how to better serve the needs of researchers,
identify major opportunities and challenges in the current environment and foreseeable future and develop a strategic plan for the future of collections research,
determine how to strengthen and modernize the role of collections in education and outreach, and
identify the primary needs of collections regarding care, curation, storage, and accessibility.
The objectives will be met with a series of workshops, symposia, internships, and a website, www.CollectionsWeb.org, which will provide a forum for interaction, host workshop reports, provide information on ways to become involved in the RCN, and provide links to resources for NHC.
Several major community resources will be developed, including a catalogue of NHC, a survey of the status of NHC, a register of curatorial expertise, and an inventory of innovative and successful educational programs.
Broadening minority participation in collections activities is a goal of the RCN.
The initial steering committee members are Henry L. Bart (Tulane University, vertebrate systematics), Meredith Blackwell (Louisiana State University, fungal systematics), L. Alan Prather (Michigan State University, plant systematics) and James B. Woolley (Texas A & M University, invertebrate systematics).
Announcements of upcoming events, opportunities to get involved, and reports will be posted to the website, so please check back often. Your input is essential! Contact us at http://www.collectionsweb.org/about/steering_committee.html.