The Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC) was created in 1985 to meet the concerns of a growing number of individuals involved with the development, management, and care of natural history collections.
The organization is an international society whose mission is to improve the preservation, conservation and management of natural history collections to ensure their continuing value to society.
After 29 years of existence, SPNHC continues to be unique among natural history professional organizations, because of its international scope and multidisciplinary approach to collections management and care. SPNHC has captured international recognition for outstanding commitment to the preservation of collections, as well as a strong record of conducting annual meetings, providing continuing educational opportunities, producing literature that adds to the knowledge base of the museum community, and a variety of successful projects.
SPNHC holds annual meetings and sponsors workshops and symposia that foster the exchange of ideas and information in the field of collections care.
The next and 29th Annual SPNHC Meeting will be held June 22-27, 2014, at the Wales Millennium Center, Cardiff, Wales, UK. The theme is Historic Collections: A Resource for the Future. More information including presentation information, program, and registration for this meeting can be found at this link: SPNHC 29th Annual Meeting
iDigBio will be presenting and sponsoring five activities at SPNHC 2014:
- Symposium: Update on Initiatives and Progress in Digitization of Natural History Collections (June 26, 2014)
- Symposium: Recruiting, Retaining, and Supporting Small Collections in Biodiversity Digitization Initiatives (June 25, 2014)
- Symposium: Managing Archives, Special Collections and Original Source Documentation in Natural History Collections: Challenges and Opportunities (June 25, 2014)
- SPNHC 2014 DEMO CAMP (June 26, 2014)
- Special Interest Group Session: Collections Digitization and Opportunities for International Collaboration (June 27th, 2014)
The organization publishes the Collection Forum, an annual, refereed journal covering all aspects of natural history collections care.
The SPNHC Newsletter is published twice a year. It contains reports from the Society’s officers and committees, news items, and other articles of general interest to the membership.
SPNHC also offers a variety of resources, brochures, best practices, grants and awards. For a complete overview of SPNHC, its mission, services and opportunities, please visit www.spnhc.org.
