Guidelines for the Management and Curation of Invertebrate Fossil Collections Including a Data Model and Standards for Computerization

Presented as a National Science Foundation workshop at the North American Paleontological Conference, Washington, DC, June 7-14, 1996. The workshop was the outgrowth of discussions within and outside of the Research Collections in Systematics and Ecology (RCSE) program at the National Science Foundation on the need for community-wide standards for management of invertebrate palaeontology collections.

The workshop set out to meet three related objectives. First, to gather quantitative data on the size and status of North American invertebrate paleontological collections for the first time in a decade. Second, to develop common standards and definitions for collection acquisition, management, and curation that would serve the invertebrate paleontological community and also accurately represent that community to the rest of the world. Third, to discuss the problems of computerization and databasing of collections and attempt to develop a standard data model.

- Introduction / Warren D. Allmon and Russell D. White
- The value of fossil collections / Warren D. Allmon and Terry P. Poulton
- Fossil invertebrate and microfossil collections: kinds, uses, users / Nigel C. Hughes, et al
- Institutional and individual orphaned collections / Julia Golden
- Orphaned and endangered collections in invertebrate paleontology: a call for a national solution / Warren D. Allmon and Meredith A. Lane
- Guidelines for the documentation and care of invertebrate fossil collections / Russell D. White
- Fossils and laws / Sally Y. Shelton and John B. Chewning
- Balancing resources and collections needs: I. Acquisition and accession of invertebrate fossils / Elizabeth Merritt and Scott Lidgard
- Balancing resources and collections needs: II. Deaccessioning and disposal of fossil invertebrates and microfossils / Jean DeMouthe, Elizabeth Merritt and Scott Lidgard
- Considerations before deaccessioning or disposing of paleontological specimens / Donald G. Mikulic
- Conservation guidelines for invertebrate palaeontology collections / Janet B. Waddington
- A data model for invertebrate paleontological collections information / Paul J. Morris
- The scientific value of natural history museum collections: the concept of completeness / Bruce S. Lieberman and Roger L. Kaesler

- Appendix I: Literature references providing and documenting the categories of value of fossil collections / Warren D. Allmon and Terry P. Poulton
- Appendix II: Results of the institutional survey of invertebrate paleontology collections / Scott Lidgard and Douglas S. Jones
- Appendix III: Survey of endangered and orphaned invertebrate fossil collections / Julia Golden
- Appendix IV: Guidelines for the care of natural history collections / Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections
- Appendix V: The Paleontological Society code of fossil collecting / Paleontological Society
- Appendix VI: Society of Vertebrate paleontology by-law on ethics / Society for the Vertebrate Paleontology
- Appendix VII: The Canadian cultural property export control list
- Appendix VIII: Excerpts from the executive summary: Report of the Secretary of the Interior: Fossils on federal and Indian lands, May, 2000 / Secretary of the Interior
- Appendix IX: A model for invertebrate paleontology collections information / Paul J. Morris
- Appendix X: Entity documentation / Paul J. Morris