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Dear Paolo, Thank you very much for your response. As a former vertebrate zoology collection manager, I see the caveat you point out clearly. I myself had to contact the Biorepositories registry admin ([log in to unmask]) at the Smithsonian a number of times to request correction, addition, and updates on the directory entries for my institution in Colorado, USA. Good news is that they are still working on improving its quality and making this registry more comprehensive. As far as I can tell, they welcome registry data confirmation process from anyone responsible for biological repositories, including non-institutional collections (individual researchers and private collections) from anywhere in the world. I highly encourage you to contact them and request adding missing data so as to reflect more accurate information about your repository holdings, which could become more discoverable by the community. Sincerely, Mariko Kageyama ________________________________ From: Paolo Viscardi <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] Sent: Friday, June 28, 2013 8:24 AM Subject: Re: Worldwide register of collections? Dear Mariko, the biorepositories site is really useful for identifying organisations holding collections, but it is worth noting the caveat that zoological collections are not well reported on the site, which can be misleading. I checked the entry for several organisations that hold zoology and those collections weren't referenced and the Horniman (where I work) is listed as being primarily a herbarium, when that is one of the smallest elements of our primarily zoological (including entomology) and palaeontological collection. Many thanks for sharing the link - it would be good to find out more about how the database has been compiled and how we might populate the entries with more information, to make it easier to find collections. Regards, Paolo On 28 June 2013 13:56, Mariko Kageyama <[log in to unmask]> wrote: Dear Helena, > > >One possible online database that may be of interest to you is "Registry of Biological Repositories". > > > >http://www.biorepositories.org/ > > > > >Sincerely, > > >Mariko Kageyama > > > > > >________________________________ > From: "Carnall, Mark" <[log in to unmask]> >To: [log in to unmask] >Sent: Friday, June 28, 2013 2:26 AM >Subject: Re: Worldwide register of collections? > > > >Dear Helena > >Thank you for your email. As Paolo has already pointed out, there isn’t such a database I’m afraid. GBIF is your best bet for zoological and botanical specimens in larger museums across the world. For human material, there are subject specialist networks in the UK for medical collections which may have examples of what you are after here’s the London Medical Museums Group. > >As for zoological specimens, through this email is going to give you the best chance of finding natural science specimens in UK museums, however, short of a worldwide database I think in order to be able to help we’d need to know more of the specifics of the kinds of things you are after. The more specific the better really including, but not limited to, information such as: > >1) Are there specific taxa/diseases you are after (pathogen or ‘hosts’) >2) Is there a certain anatomy you are interested in CNS, muscle, etc? >3) Are you thinking about a specific kind of object type- microscope slides, fluid preserved specimens, etc? >4) Are specimens of a particular age required? >5) Are you looking at specific geographical areas? >6) Are you looking to borrow these specimens, visit them or get destructive samples sent to you? >7) Are you interested in domestic, zoo, farm, laboratory (including deliberately infected) animals or is it ‘wild’ examples you are looking for? > >With some of that information it might help us to narrow down portions of the collections which may be of potential use to you. > >Kind regards > >Mark Carnall > >Curator >Grant Museum of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy >Rockefeller Building >University College London >21 University Street >London >WC1E 6JJ > >Tel:(+44) 020 3108 2052 (Internal ext. 52052) >Email: [log in to unmask] >www.grant.museum.ucl.ac.uk >Museums and Collections Blog: https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/museums/ > >Grant Museum Opening Times: Monday to Saturday 1-5pm > >http://twitter.com/@GrantMuseum >http://www.facebook.com/pages/UCL-Museums-and-Collections/352538109391 > > > > > >________________________________ > From: Paolo Viscardi <[log in to unmask]> >To: [log in to unmask] >Sent: Friday, June 28, 2013 2:13 AM >Subject: Re: Worldwide register of collections? > > > >Dear Helen, > > >I wish that we could say that there was such a register, but alas it is not the case - at least for now. > > >At the moment we don't even have an up-to-date register for the natural science collections in the UK. This is something that NatSCA are hoping to address in the near future - in fact we are working on a funding proposal for this work right now. > > >Having your request is a helpful example of why this work needs to be done, but for the meantime the NatSCA Jiscmail is a good place to ask about access to specific types of material in the UK and beyond - we certainly have these sorts of collections at the Horniman Museum in London, that we make available for researchers. > > >All the best, > > >Paolo > >From:The Natural Science Collections Association discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Helena Skar >Sent: 28 June 2013 07:43 >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: Worldwide register of collections? > >Dear members of NatSCA, > >I am a researcher in pathogen evolution and I am turning my interest to museum specimens and the possibility to extract RNA and DNA from them. > >I am (maybe in vain..) looking for a register of all natural science collections in the world. I am preferably after human tissue collections but I am also interested in certain animal specimens, so zoological collections are also of interest. > >Do you know if there is such a thing? Or where I could turn to find it? > >All the best, >Helena Skar > >-------------------------------------------------------------------- >Dr Helena Skar | Postdoctoral Research Fellow >School of Biological Sciences | Faculty of Science > >UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY >Rm 301, Macleay Building A12 | Camperdown | NSW | 2006 | Australia >T +61 2 9351 6301 | E [log in to unmask] >W http://sydney.edu.au/science/biology/viralevolution > > >