Revision of standards in the care of Natural History Collections from Thu, 2013-11-28 15:59

In 2013, The Clothworkers Foundation funded a project to establish standards in the care of Natural History Collections and to develop training for staff who are responsible for these collections across the UK. The capacity building project has focused initially on Botanical, Wet and Skins and Taxidermy collections with the aim of establishing a benchmark for collections care and then a training structure for those staff responsible for these collections but that were outside their area of expertise. To date the project has brought together a 40 experts from Europe and North America and produced a series of provisional standards and syllabus that the group will be building to develop training and knowledge sharing. The project currently has around 60 people in the Europe engaged in the project and will eventually bring a group of 100 people together to build experience and knowledge in collections care. The project is currently embarking on training skills to staff across the UK in the care of Botanical, wet and Skins and Taxidermy collections. The project has engaged those people already involved in training in the UK in Botanical and Wet collections conservation in the UK and through the development of an agreed syllabus hopes to expand the numbers of individuals engaged in teaching and the knowledge base of those involved in the care of these collections.