Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections March 2018 - 12

Society Reports
ing the ASIH Spiritus Award, collection accreditation, best
practices, and updates on NSF funding of oVert (openVertebrate), the first ADBC-funded project specifically on the topic
of vertebrate specimens. The Spiritus Award is given annually
by ASIH as a meritorious award for collection stewardship.
The first award was given in 2017 and was awarded to Jens
Vindum, recently retired collection manager of Herpetology
at California Academy of Sciences. The chair of the IHCC
is Greg Watkins-Colwell (Yale Peabody Museum of Natural
History), co-chair is Sarah Huber (Virginia Institute of Marine Science), and James Erdmann (Southeastern Louisiana
University) continues to serve as the Student Representative.
Greg Watkins-Colwell ended his time as the SPNHC ASIH
representative on January 1, 2018, and is graciously replaced
by Randy Singer (University of Florida).
Respectfully submitted,
Greg Watkins-Colwell, SPNHC representative to ASIH

American Society of Plant Taxonomists
If all goes well, a Best Practices document for herbarium operations, first
proposed by the Society in 1958 and
last revised in 1978, will appear soon!
The committee is working toward submitting it for publication in February.
We worked with the ASPT President to
respond to a request for support in the
wake of the fire at the Pringle Herbarium (VT), University of
Vermont, in August of 2017.
The 2018 annual meeting of the Society will be held at
Botany2018 in Rochester, Minnesota, USA, on July 21-25,
2018.
Respectfully submitted,
Rich Rabeler, SPNHC representative to the ASPT

Association of Registrars and Collections Specialists
The Association of Registrars and Collections Specialists (ARCS) hosted a
very successful two-day symposium,
"Unexplored Territories: The Challenges of a Contemporary Collections
Registrar," in Mexico City, October
9-10, 2017, at the Museo Nacional de
Arte. Despite the recent earthquake, the
event was well-attended.
12 * SPNHC Connection

The ARCS biennial meeting was held in lovely downtown
Vancouver, British Columbia, November 3-5, 2017. More
than 800 attendees participated in a highly diverse series of
presentations, a trade show, social events and networking.
Presentations ranged from ivory in collections to the management of born-digital objects, and collection storage environments. Recordings of the presentations and handouts are
available to members on the ARCS website (www.arcsinfo.
org). The next full ARCS meeting will take place in 2019.
ARCS hosts a regular Twitter Chat on various collection
management topics on the first Tuesday of each month at 8
pm EST time (#ARCSchat). All are invited to participate.
ARCS recently added a pdf entitled How to Select a Museum
Studies Program to the website (http://www.arcsinfo.org/
content/documents/how_to_select_a_museum_studies_degree_programw_logojan2018.pdf). Later this spring ARCS
will post a new Registrars and Collections Specialists Resource List and an updated list of Museum Property and Old
Loan Legislation.
Respectfully submitted,
John E. Simmons, SPNHC representative to ARCS

Collections Stewardship Professional
Network
The Collections Stewardship Professional Network (CSAAM) will meet
at the American Alliance of Museums
annual meeting in Phoenix, Arizona,
May 6-9, 2018. New features added
to the CS website (www.collectionsstewardship.org) include "Notes from
the Board," "Form & Policy Swap,"
and "Supplies & Materials" lists. The Collections Stewardship listserv, which is open to anyone interested, currently has
about 5,000 subscribers (https://www.collectionsstewardship.
org/listserve).
Respectfully submitted,
John E. Simmons, SPNHC representative to the CSAAM

Entomological Collections Network
ECN formed an MOU with SPNHC in late 2016; this is our
second annual report. ECN is a 501(c)(3) non-profit international organization dedicated to promoting entomological science through the preservation, management, use and
development of entomological collections, and to disseminating information and fostering communications between

http://www.arcsinfo.org http://www.arcsinfo.org https://www.twitter.com/search?q=%23ARCSchat&lang=en http://www.arcsinfo.org/content/documents/how_to_select_a_museum_studies_degree_programw_logojan2018.pdf http://www.arcsinfo.org/content/documents/how_to_select_a_museum_studies_degree_programw_logojan2018.pdf http://www.arcsinfo.org/content/documents/how_to_select_a_museum_studies_degree_programw_logojan2018.pdf https://www.collectionsstewardship.org/ https://www.collectionsstewardship.org/ https://www.collectionsstewardship.org/listserve https://www.collectionsstewardship.org/listserve

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections March 2018