The Museum für Naturkunde and the Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum Berlin are honored to be hosting the 31st Annual Meeting for the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC) in Berlin from June, 19 to June, 26, 2016. The conference sessions will be held at the andel’s Hotel Berlin Landsberger Allee, workshops at the host institutions, the Museum für Naturkunde and the Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum Berlin. The meeting will be held in parallel with the 2nd International Conference on Biodiversity Biobanking of the Global Genome Biodiversity Network (GGBN, http://meetings.ggbn.org/site/ggbn2016).
It is with great pleasure to let you know that registration for the conference is now open. Please check www.spnhc2016.berlin for information on the conference program, social events, accommodation, registration and abstract submission – or proceed directly to registration at http://spnhc2016.m-anage.com
The conference theme is “Green Museum – How to practice what we preach?” In a world of climate change and ever decreasing biodiversity, sustainability should be the criterion that ideally determines all planning and decisions, ranging from field work to construction projects, from ethical aspects to cost-benefit analyses. In practice this often is compromised by constraints beyond the control of the institution, be it monetary, legal or other. The conference will offer a forum to discuss possible ways of reconciling the seemingly opposing requirements. We are working on an exciting program and welcome your contribution to this or other topics.
Themed sessions will include:
- Green Museum – How to practice what we preach? (general session)
- Preventive conservation and material science
- Collections for the future – future of collections
- Small Collections Symposium: Blending the educational resources of small and large collections for training the next generation of museum professionals (iDigBio Symposium)
- An International Conversation on Mobilizing Natural History Collections Data and Integrating Data for Research (iDigBio Symposium)
- DemoCamp
Abstracts can be submitted online via the registration site http://spnhc2016.m-anage.com
All abstracts of accepted presentations will be published in the conference book. It will be published as a true publication (with ISBN number) and will give you the chance to submit a more substantial abstract (short article) including figure(s) and a short list of references. This conference book will be provided to all participants during check-in and will be published online after the conference.
Workshops will be held on
- Fluid collections – conservation techniques
- Cleaning – repairing – restoring of historical mounted bird specimens
- “Access and Benefit Sharing” in Natural History Collections – implementation and practical management
- Proper sealing in fluid collections
- Museum environments: Managing risk and sustainability
Last but not least there will be a whole lot of fantastic social events, from five different field trips to a guided bicycle tour through Berlin, from the Icebreaker at the Museum für Naturkunde to the Banquet and Dancing at the wonderful Botanic Garden.
Check for more on www.spnhc2016.berlin and stay tuned! You don’t want to miss that.
We are looking forward to seeing you in Berlin for SPNHC 2016!
Best wishes,
Christiane Quaisser
On behalf of the SPNHC 2016 Organizing Committee