TY - JOUR
T1 - The Value of Museum Collections for Research and Society
AU - Suarez, Andrew V.
AU - Tsutsui, Neil D.
N1 - Funding Information:
financial support. Many publications in the most prestigious and frequently cited journals in the fields of ecology and evolutionary biology rely on museums for data, funding, and reference material (table 2). Nonetheless, there is room for improvement. Because a cornerstone of the scientific process is repeatability, specimens used in scientific investigations should be cataloged and vouchered in museums to ensure that species identifications can be confirmed and the results interpreted correctly (Ruedas et al. 2000).
PY - 2004/1
Y1 - 2004/1
N2 - Many museums and academic institutions maintain first-rate collections of biological materials, ranging from preserved whole organisms to DNA libraries and cell lines. These biological collections make innumerable contributions to science and society in areas as divergent as homeland security, public health and safety, monitoring of environmental change, and traditional taxonomy and systematics. Moreover, these collections save governments and taxpayers many millions of dollars each year by effectively guiding government spending, preventing catastrophic events in public health and safety, eliminating redundancy, and securing natural and agricultural resources. However, these contributions are widely underappreciated by the public and by policymakers, resulting in insufficient financial support for maintenance and improvement of biological collections.
AB - Many museums and academic institutions maintain first-rate collections of biological materials, ranging from preserved whole organisms to DNA libraries and cell lines. These biological collections make innumerable contributions to science and society in areas as divergent as homeland security, public health and safety, monitoring of environmental change, and traditional taxonomy and systematics. Moreover, these collections save governments and taxpayers many millions of dollars each year by effectively guiding government spending, preventing catastrophic events in public health and safety, eliminating redundancy, and securing natural and agricultural resources. However, these contributions are widely underappreciated by the public and by policymakers, resulting in insufficient financial support for maintenance and improvement of biological collections.
KW - Biological invasions
KW - Global climate change
KW - Museum collections
KW - National security
KW - Public health and safety
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U2 - 10.1641/0006-3568(2004)054[0066:TVOMCF]2.0.CO;2
DO - 10.1641/0006-3568(2004)054[0066:TVOMCF]2.0.CO;2
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:0346670237
SN - 0006-3568
VL - 54
SP - 66
EP - 74
JO - BioScience
JF - BioScience
IS - 1
ER -