Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections September 2019 - 14

Society Reports

SPNHC Representative Reports
American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists
The 2018 and 98th annual ASIH meeting occurred as part of the Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists
(JMIH) July 11-15, 2018 in Rochester,
New York, USA. The meeting was held at the Joseph A. Floreano Rochester Riverside Convention Center. The JMIH was
attended by 762 people (375 professionals and 351 students)
representing 19 nations. On July 13, 2018, the ASIH Ichthyological and Herpetological Collections Committee met. The
IHCC meeting was well attended by collection personnel
(including several student collection assistants and undergraduate students) representing at least 15 institutions or collections. The co-chairs of the IHCC Gregory Watkins-Colwell
and Sarah Huber (Virginia Institute of Marine Science) lead
the meeting. The meeting began with a discussion about the
IHCC policy of which the attendees were made aware that
any document changes needed to be submitted before August
15, 2018. The committee then discussed the Spiritus Award
nominees, winner (ichthyologist this year - Karsen Hartel),
and incoming and outgoing committee chairs. The committee then discussed updates on the SPNHC wiki, and James
Erdman (workshop organizer) and several others discussed
the success of the Carl Gans Workshop held at the Rochester
meeting. This workshop included talks and roundtable discussions about collection best practices and the future of collections. The committee then discussed the JMIH 2019 symposium lead by Eric Hilton (chair); Greg Watkins-Colwell,
(co-chair) and Sarah Huber (co-chair) titled, "The Expanding
Role of Natural History Collections." Additionally, discussions began regarding a possible collections-based workshop
for the 2020 JMIH in Norfolk, Virginia. It is unclear whether
the workshop will take place prior to or following the meetings. More discussion will be had at the 2019 meeting. Finally the meeting closed with discussion about the IHCC social
media account, and it was decided that Norma Salcedo be
appointed to oversee the page and make posts for the IHCC.
Respectfully submitted,
Randy Singer, SPNHC representative to ASIH

American Society of Mammalogists
14 * SPNHC Connection

Since 1972, the American Society of
Mammalogists (ASM) has had a standing committee called the Systematic
Collections Committee as an outgrowth
of an ad hoc committee formed at the
request of the National Science Foundation. The Society has defined this committee's responsibilities as follows: 1)
Advising curators worldwide in matters relating to collection
administration, curation, and accreditation; 2) maintaining a
directory of mammal collections and conducting a survey of
existing collections approximately once each decade; and 3)
maintaining a list of curatorial standards for mammal collections and managing a collection-accreditation program under
the auspices of the Society.
Once a collection evaluation process has been completed, the
committee forwards its recommendations for accreditation
to the ASM President for review. The president then notifies
the collection's administration of the committee's decision.
If accreditation is to be conferred, the president sends a letter
to that effect as well as an Accreditation Certificate and a
copy of the final report. Final reports generally contain both
positive observations and recommendations for improvement. The latter rarely comes as a surprise to collection staff.
Rather, the committee works with the staff to articulate areas
for which they need greater administrative support. It is
hoped that the committee's recommendations will highlight
the importance of the collection to the mammal research
community and help to leverage greater institutional support
for the collection.
Now, the ASM Board of Directors has approved the ASM
Standards for Genetic Resource Collections. This expands
the current accreditation program for mammal collections
to include accreditation of genetic resource collections. The
committee looks forward to these new requests.
Finally, the Systematic Collections Committee has published
the latest update: Mammal collections of the Western Hemisphere: A survey and directory of collections. 2018. Journal
of Mammalogy, 99(6): 1307-1322. This is a thorough update
of a survey that has been conducted by the society approximately every ten years for more than 50 years and is always
useful to researchers and collection colleagues alike.
To view the documents mentioned above and much more
collection-related information, see the Systematic Collections
Committee page on the ASM website: http://www.mammalogy.org/committees/systematic-collections#tab3.
Respectfully submitted,
Suzanne B. McLaren, SPNHC representative to ASM

http://www.mammalogy.org/committees/systematic-collections#tab3 http://www.mammalogy.org/committees/systematic-collections#tab3

Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections September 2019

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