Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections September 2017 - 6

Society Reports
Archives Comittee
Background

The Smithsonian Institution Archives
(SIA) houses the archives of SPNHC.
SIA currently holds 16 deposits of
SPNHC material totaling 23.5 cubic
feet. Examples of this material include
Collection Forum, SPNHC newsletters, documentation of annual meetings,
financial files, election ballots, memberat-large files, various committee files,
videos, CDs and photographs.

Procedure

The committee chair acts as liaison
between SIA and SPNHC. The committee receives, lists, and transfers material
to the Smithsonian Institution Archives
when sufficient quantities accumulate. All material that is
deposited within a fiscal year (October 1 through September
30) is assigned the same accession number and housed in
the same storage box/unit. Some SPNHC archives need to
be rehoused in archival materials prior to transfer to SIA. All
material that has been received since the last deposit is being
held by the committee.

Current Work

Although SPNHC is publishing electronically, printed copies
of the SPNHC newsletters and Collection Forum are being
deposited in SPNHC's archives. No requests for archived information were received by the chair in the past year. Images
from the SPNHC annual meeting in Denver were provided by
Carol Kelloff. Material for deposit was received from Ruth
O'Leary. As per SIA protocols, SPNHC materials are being
prepared for deposit in SIA this upcoming fiscal year.
Respectfully submitted,
Linda Hollenberg and Carol Kelloff, Co-chairs

Best Practices Committee
The Best Practices Committee is continuing to add new content to the SPNHC wiki (http://spnhc.biowikifarm.net/wiki).
A page on Threatened and Orphaned Collections has been
added to the wiki in response to news that the natural history
collections at the University of Louisiana in Monroe may be
destroyed. This information is now available for any institution that may be facing loss or destruction of their valuable
collections. In addition, a page on the importance of collections has been produced. The information included on this
page can be used to communicate the importance of natural
6 * SPNHC Connection

history collections to justify budgets
for collections care and maintenance, to
include in collection improvement grant
applications, or to include in discussions
with institutional leadership.
A number of draft pages have been
established on the wiki but need content
editors (see http://spnhc.biowikifarm.
net/wiki/Category:Desired_BP_Content). The Best Practices Committee
asks SPNHC members to contact Breda
Zimkus (bzimkus@oeb.harvard.edu) if
they are not currently part of BP Committee but would like to assist in editing
any of the included topics. Remote
training is available.
As more content is compiled and added to the wiki, we are
looking at how to keep pace and the sustainability of the wiki
in the long term. Long-term plans for wiki sustainability are
being discussed, which will likely include more committee
involvement and defining a new role of wiki liaison for each
committee.
The Best Practices Committee is coordinating with members
of the Society for American Archaeology (SAA) to develop
a session at the 83rd Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.
(April 11-15, 2018). This session would include a lightning
round organized around collaboration in collections care.
Representatives of SPNHC and other societies/organizations
would share valuable cross-discipline resources and innovative solutions for archaeology specimen care and data management.
The Citations Subcommittee is continuing to gather citations
for museum collection related content, although contributions
have been decreasing. Members are researching possible
technological solutions to make gathered citations more easily available to SPNHC members.
Respectfully submitted,
Jessica Cundiff and Breda Zimkus, Co-chairs

Bylaws Committee
The Bylaws Committee is responsible for the continued
development of the Society Bylaws, monitoring Society
activities to ensure agreement with Bylaws, and for periodic
updates to the Leadership Manual of the Society.

Bylaws

Changes to the Bylaws were voted on unanimously by the
membership at the SPNHC 2017 Annual Business Meeting

http://spnhc.biowikifarm.net/wiki/Category:Desired_BP_Content http://spnhc.biowikifarm.net/wiki/Category:Desired_BP_Content http://spnhc.biowikifarm.net/wiki/Category:Desired_BP_Content http://spnhc.biowikifarm.net/wiki

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections September 2017