[Taxacom] Herbarium vouchering policies

[S.R.Edwards]

I well understand the need for public services such as herbariums to look for new sources of funding (having been Keeper of Botany at MANCH for many years), but this important political aspect is not what I am considering here. 

However, I would offer extreme caution for the line being considered by PERTH, simply on the practicality of their approach. It is simplistic to say we'd be delighted to take a voucher for a new species of orchid from a previously unexplored region, but would charge for a grubby moss that seems to be a form of a common species, from your backyard. 

What experts are you going to use to decide? And can the charge be made retrospectively when the new species is shortly sunk into synonymy?  Should voucher specimens wait in a private collection (purgatory?) to see how they pan out, before being accepted charge-free? Herbariums are littered with types of synonyms that were named with some shortage of investigation, refereed or not. Admittedly most but by no means all of these were from long ago, when the value of collections to paid collectors -- how things change! -- was enhanced if they contained new species. 

Or would the charge be refunded when, as often happens, a new species is discovered by a researcher revising a family by reviewing a large number of herbarium specimens, amongst what was thought to be a common species. I don't have any figures on this, but I wonder how the number of new species discovered from herbarium investigations, compares with those that were recognised before being incorporated (this of course will vary from well-worked areas to underworked areas, and over time). Or how the distribution of relict species that have no close living relatives (as opposed to yet another finch) are associated with biodiversity hotspots. Darwin might have some views. 

Who is going to compare the value of changing distributional data from widespread species (e.g. re. global warming) from herbariums, with the value of a marginally new species in a glamorous taxon?

With regard to funding the quoted AUD$52/specimen (including its own administrative charge?), I wonder if you have incorporated the cost of volunteers? There are other overheads and costs of course that can be factored down to per-specimen.  But It was largely our excellent and motivated volunteers (when I was at MANCH) who provide the specimens, e.g. for valuable local floras, and who do most of the work in incorporating and indeed curating the specimens, though databasing was not usually their favourite task. The Curator/Keeper must make a decision on what student/expedition haystack to accept, but it is the volunteers who prepare it for incorporation. True, they cost coffee (mostly their own), and space (still thankfully available at no extra cost), and some administration.  Are you going to start charging these guys now for their vouchers?

I know that this response is not an answer. The Keeper's decision on accepting material may well be helped by "a set of policies" -- don't all museums have a collections and acquisitions policy?  But the "contribute significant new knowledge" versus "add little new knowledge" sounds like prescience. And this "set of vouchering policies" sounds like one of those bright ideas thought up by an administrative committee, to provide a "service to the community", and maybe even to science which is not the same. Tick those boxes....

I'm sure that you have read the excellent: Nudds JF, Pettitt CW (eds). 1997. The value and valuation of natural science collections -- proceedings of the international conference, Manchester, 1995. Geological Society, London. ISBN 1-897799-76-4. This investigates the minefield well, giving varying costs (as at 1995) for acquisition, curating and accommodating specimens. All museum departments should have this volume on their working shelves.

Best wishes, Sean


Sean Edwards, Vine Cottage, The Street, Thursley, Surrey GU8 6QF, UK 
sean.r.edwards at btinternet.com 
tel: 01252-702-890 cell: 07768-706-295


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Thiele, Kevin" <Kevin.Thiele at dec.wa.gov.au>
To: <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
Sent: Thursday, October 05, 2006 4:06 AM
Subject: [Taxacom] Herbarium vouchering policies

> The Western Australian Herbarium (PERTH) is developing a set of policies
> to guide vouchering services. The issue arises because incorporating
> voucher specimens (e.g. for consultants and researchers) costs the
> herbarium a significant amount in dollar terms, for processing,
> mounting, databasing etc (estimated at AUD$52/specimen). The herbarium
> provides this as a service to the community. Some vouchered specimens
> contribute significant new knowledge (particularly in a biodiversity
> hotspot like the south west of WA), while others add little (e.g.
> specimens of well-represented, common species collected from known
> localities or close to known localities). 
> 
> We need to determine whether to charge for the vouchering service, under
> what circumstances it is reasonable to charge and when to waive a
> charge, and whether we can or should attempt to filter out specimens
> that add little new knowledge before they enter the herbarium processing
> stream.
> 
> It would be useful to us to know if other herbaria have formal
> vouchering policies, and the issues that have been considered in
> developing such policies.
> 
> Cheers - Kevin Thiele
> Curator, Western Australian Herbarium (PERTH)