Collection Inventory

Why?

An inventory allows to increase the visibility and underline the importance of collections for research and society. It is a tool to monitor collections in regard to curational aspects such as information on the number of specimens, their kind and origin as well as their digitization status. By transferring the metadata resulting from a collection inventory to the Global Registry of Scientific Collections (GRSciColl), the gathered information becomes openly accessible and usable.

How?

To be sharable, information has to be collected by following defined rules to obtain standardised metadata. To this end, SwissCollNet has developed a Collection Survey Matrix and Guidelines.

Benefits?

The Swiss inventory of natural history collections has allowed to gain an unprecedented overview of the collection contents and richness and will be an indispensable tool to make strategic decisions.

• Collections are Findable and metainformation openly Accessible on the Global Register of Scientific Collections. (Meta)data are Interoperable and Reusable, since they have been collected with standardised methods and vocabularies.
• Curators have a tool in their hands to overview and monitor their collections and to prioritise future investments for databasing and restoration of their collections.
• Institutions by being published on GRSciColl, gain visibility at a national and international level.
• The Community benefits from shared information for collaboration and enhanced reputation, resulting in a strong network.

113 curators from 31 legal entities of natural history institutions or institutions that house natural history collections have handed in metadata of their collections. Metadata have been transferred to GRSciColl, resulting 438 collection units registered in 37 Swiss institutional units with a distinct code. The collection units registered contain 61’416’266 million natural history specimens of anthropological, archaeological, zoological, botanical, paleontological and geological collection units. The collection units in the participating institutions contain specimens or objects that originate from across the globe, and from space in the case of meteorites. In 2025, the results of the collection survey will be published (manuscript in preparation).