The Council of Australian University Museums and Collections is currently calling for proposals for our symposium to be held at the Australian National University on April 6, 2018.
https://caumac.wordpress.com/
While the symposium is primarily a way for us to gauge the Australian experience of this issue, we also welcome international perspectives. Even if you are not able to attend the symposium, we'd love to hear responses to this question from your part of the world.
A number of associated questions follow from this:-
How have universities dealt with the issue of legacy collections?
What are the advantages and pitfalls of valuing legacy collections based on their potential for new research?
How do you manage a collection to be ready for research that might currently be unforeseeable?
What does this mean for collections whose research potential is unknown?
The thoughts of university curators, researchers, professional staff, administrative staff, university leaders and students who would like to help shape our thinking on this issue are welcome. Also interested in examples from your area of expertise.
And of course, if you are in our part of the world at the time, please come to the symposium!
One approach to recognizing the data archiving problem faced by seismologists, earth scientists and geotyechnical engineers is data preservation and digitisation.
Here's an Iranian encouraging approach.
Col Lynam, Brisbane
https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/429371/Akasheh-award-to-honor-top-Iranian-seismologists
Akasheh award to honor top Iranian seismologists
November 10, 2018
📷
TEHRAN – An award will be granted to top Iranian professors of seismology annually for the first time in appreciation of Bahram Akasheh, Iran's leading expert on earthquakes and seismic activity, ISNA reported on Saturday.
The award ceremony will be held during a ceremony in Tehran on November 12. The event aims to promote the science of seismology in the country, encourage the next generations to continue the way of this outstanding thinker and to open up an opportunity for sharing the results of researches and studies in this field.
Born in 1936, Akasheh is the first Iranian geophysicist and seismologist and Professor of Geophysics at University of Tehran.
The ceremony will be held concurrent with the first anniversary of Kermanshah earthquake, appreciating fifty years of compassionate efforts of Akasheh, who will attend the ceremony.
FB/MQ/MG
Hi Col,
Great story about dedication to archiving data. Interesting to see what universities do around the world in terms of archiving data.
In Australia, of course, for research data, there are Australian Research Council requirements for keeping data for 7 years. After that who knows or cares?
It would be interesting to know if the ARC actually audits this requirement?
Cheers
Andrew
Interesting question Andy. Here's a partial authoritative response that I found..." However, ARC had few systematic processes to monitor progress and final reporting of projects. As a result, ARC could not fully account that grants were used as intended, or assess the extent that ARC's output and outcome were being met. " (https://www.anao.gov.au/work/performance-audit/australian-research-councils-management-research-grants ). The full audit is available there. Done way back in 2006. Col
Hi Alwynnne,
Many thanks for the link to the article. Spatial data is a very useful measure of object contextualisation because of the potential it provides in answering questions. When universities consider the future of legacy collections they need to consult. I fear too many decisions to hastily dispose of collections result from administrators who don't understand collections and don't have the time or will to think of future potential of collections and their relevance to a university's mission. Not just universities but also other agencies seem to do this.
Great article would have been good to have you at our small symposium last year!
Link to published abstracts on this page.
https://caumac.wordpress.com/blog-posts/caumac_anu/
Regards
Andrew
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