Museum Acronyms

[Jim Croft]

>I would like to know what is the procedure to standardize museum acronyms in
>zoology?

Just do it...

Index Herbariorum did not seek anyone's permission or general agreement of
the community beforehand.  They just went ahead and did it and when it was
more or less complete the community saw that it was good and useful and
formally adopted it as a standard and we now refer to ourselves by these
handles.

The key was to have a group committed and focused enough to pull it
together, and an institution with long-term vision and commitment to
support it.

Taxacom will never do it (I do not think Taxacom has ever actually 'done'
anything) but an individual or small team in a major museum might.

Just do it...  but given that sharing of biodiversity data across all
groups is becoming increasingly important, can I make a plea that you do
not duplicate any of the handle thingies already in Index Herbariorum?

jim (at CANB, previously at CBG, LAE, SYD, collaborator with NSW, PERTH,
AD, BRI, HO, MEL, DNA, wants to visit K, L, B, A, etc.)

~ Jim Croft ~ jrc at anbg.gov.au ~ 02-62465500 ~ www.anbg.gov.au/jrc/ ~