Italian natural history museums on the verge of collapse?

Andreone, Franco; Bartolozzi, Luca; Boano, Giovanni; Boero, Ferdinando; Bologna, Marco Alberto; Bon, Mauro; Bressi, Nicola; Capula, Massimo; Casale, Achille; Casiraghi, Maurizio; Chiozzi, Giorgio; Delfino, Massimo; Doria, Giuliano; Durante, Antonio; Ferrari, Marco; Gippoliti, Spartaco; Lanzinger, Michele; Latella, Leonardo; Maio, Nicola; Marangoni, Carla; Mazzotti, Stefano; Minelli, Alessandro; Muscio, Giuseppe; Nicolosi, Paola; Pievani, Telmo; Razzetti, Edoardo; Sabella, Giorgio; Valle, Marco; Vomero, Vincenzo; Zilli, Alberto

doi:10.3897/zookeys.456.8862

Cited by 27 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Taxonomic expertise is decreasing for many organism groups or is not represented in the curation of some collections. Funding often relies on public sources and may be adversely affected by political and socio-economic changes, comprising the long-term continuity of a museum's activities (see for instance Andreone et al, 2014). New international regulations on the collection, export and use of specimens for non-commercial and commercial purposes are now increasing administrative burdens and may prevent further development of collections.…”

Section: Distribution Redundancy and Digitization Of Collectionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Global Museum: natural history collections and the future of evolutionary science and public education

Bakker

Antonelli

Clarke

et al. 2020

PeerJ

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Natural history museums are unique spaces for interdisciplinary research and educational innovation. Through extensive exhibits and public programming and by hosting rich communities of amateurs, students, and researchers at all stages of their careers, they can provide a place-based window to focus on integration of science and discovery, as well as a locus for community engagement. At the same time, like a synthesis radio telescope, when joined together through emerging digital resources, the global community of museums (the ‘Global Museum’) is more than the sum of its parts, allowing insights and answers to diverse biological, environmental, and societal questions at the global scale, across eons of time, and spanning vast diversity across the Tree of Life. We argue that, whereas natural history collections and museums began with a focus on describing the diversity and peculiarities of species on Earth, they are now increasingly leveraged in new ways that significantly expand their impact and relevance. These new directions include the possibility to ask new, often interdisciplinary questions in basic and applied science, such as in biomimetic design, and by contributing to solutions to climate change, global health and food security challenges. As institutions, they have long been incubators for cutting-edge research in biology while simultaneously providing core infrastructure for research on present and future societal needs. Here we explore how the intersection between pressing issues in environmental and human health and rapid technological innovation have reinforced the relevance of museum collections. We do this by providing examples as food for thought for both the broader academic community and museum scientists on the evolving role of museums. We also identify challenges to the realization of the full potential of natural history collections and the Global Museum to science and society and discuss the critical need to grow these collections. We then focus on mapping and modelling of museum data (including place-based approaches and discovery), and explore the main projects, platforms and databases enabling this growth. Finally, we aim to improve relevant protocols for the long-term storage of specimens and tissues, ensuring proper connection with tomorrow’s technologies and hence further increasing the relevance of natural history museums.

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Section: Distribution Redundancy and Digitization Of Collectionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Global Museum: natural history collections and the future of evolutionary science and public education

Bakker

Antonelli

Clarke

et al. 2020

PeerJ

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“…Manuscript to be reviewed and socio-economic changes, comprising the long-term continuity of a museum's activities (see for instance Andreone et al, 2014). New international regulations on the collection, export and use of specimens for non-commercial and commercial purposes are now increasing administrative burdens and may prevent further development of collections.…”

Section: Distribution Redundancy and Digitization Of Collectionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Peer Review #2 of "The Global Museum: natural history collections and the future of evolutionary science and public education (v0.1)"

2020

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Natural history museums are unique spaces for interdisciplinary research and for educational innovation. Through extensive exhibits and public programming and by hosting rich communities of amateurs, students, and researchers at all stages of their careers, they can provide a place-based window to focus on integration of science and discovery, as well as a locus for community engagement. At the same time, like a synthesis radio telescope, when joined together through emerging digital resources, the global community of museums (the 'Global Museum') is more than the sum of its parts, allowing insights and answers to diverse biological, environmental, and societal questions at the global scale, across eons of time, and spanning vast diversity across the Tree of Life. We argue that, whereas natural history collections and museums began with a focus on

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“…Many important European natural history museums have already published catalogues of their 'E&E' bird species (Stresemann 1954, Jouanin 1962, Howes 1969, Benson 1972, Fisher 1981, Knox & Walters 1994, Boev 2003, Mlíkovský & Sutorová 2010, Mlíkovský 2012, Gouraud 2014). However, in Italy the situation is problematic, due partly to the lack of a national museum (Andreone et al 2014). The existence of more than 70 natural history museums, some of international importance but managed by different institutions, has impeded the development of a unified catalogue.…”

Section: Blue-headed Pitta Hydrornis Baudiimentioning

confidence: 99%

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2019

Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club

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gave a talk entitled The shape of birds, and why it matters. Birds vary widely in size from the Bee Hummingbird Mellisuga helenae to Common Ostrich Struthio camelus, and come in a staggering range of shapes. Last century, the field of eco-morphology began to shed light on the way birds are shaped by habitat preferences and foraging behaviour, but studies focused on relatively few species and left numerous gaps in understanding. Joe's talk explored recent research based on detailed measurements of almost all of the world's bird species, and described how this new influx of information has been combined with spatial, phylogenetic and ecological data to help answer some fundamental questions, such as how does bird diversity arise, and how can it best be conserved? REVIEWS

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Italian natural history museums on the verge of collapse?

Cited by 27 publications

References 4 publications

The Global Museum: natural history collections and the future of evolutionary science and public education

The Global Museum: natural history collections and the future of evolutionary science and public education

Peer Review #2 of "The Global Museum: natural history collections and the future of evolutionary science and public education (v0.1)"

Full Issue

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