Abstract
The collection policy of the Finnish Museum of Natural History Luomus is hierarchically structured. General principles and guidelines are defined in the General Collections Policy. Subordinate to it, the collection policies for the individual sub-collections implement and specify these guidelines and instructions, considering the special nature of each sub-collection. The invertebrate collections policy in 2017 was the first sub-collection policy to observe this hierarchical structure, and was guided by the standards set by the European SYNTHESYS collections management self-assessment procedure. The invertebrate collections policy directs all activities related to the Luomus invertebrate collections (apart from DNA and tissue samples), which comprise the separately managed entomological collections (ca. 9 million specimens) and collections of other invertebrates (0.4 million). The policy defines the purpose of the collections, outlines the objectives and content of procedures and activities related to them, the division of responsibilities for the administration and care of the collections within the organisation, and the principles and practices for the acquisition, preservation, accessibility and use of the collections.
Highlights
General principles and guidelines are defined in the General Collections Policy (Hyvärinen et al 2020)
The Invertebrate Collections Policy is one of these separate policy documents and it directs all activities related to invertebrate collections, excluding DNA and tissue samples which are governed by the separate Genomic Resources Collections Policy (Ståhls-Mäkelä et al 2020)
This policy document has been prepared in the Zoology Unit, reviewed by the Collections Steering Group, and approved by the Luomus management group on 29 May 2017*1
Summary
New material to the collection is added systematically based on the objectives specified in the collection and research policies, rather than amassed arbitrarily. The growth of the collection is guided by the potential information content of the new materials and by their utility for research This may be related to the documentation of species diversity (systematics and taxonomy), of variation within individual species (e.g., dispersal history) or of species distribution. Knowing and recognising the focus areas of collections from other institutions is intertwined with designation of the strengths of the Luomus collections. This knowledge will help in directing the expansion of various collections in a way that will enhance the value of individual collections while at the same time responsibilities are distributed in a rational manner. Natural history collections at other universities and provincial institutions have a regional focus related to their own geographical location
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