Curating Biocultural Collections: A Handbook - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1842464981 ISBN 13: 9781842464984

Publisher: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 2014

Synopsis

Biocultural collections cross the boundary between nature and culture, documenting the remarkable richness and diversity of human engagement with the natural world. With materials ranging from blocks of wood to DNA, and from ancient books to new websites, they play a diverse role in research and relaying valuable information about our world. Curating Biocultural Collections is the first book that both recognizes this role and provides wide-ranging advice for successfully managing these resources.

Written and edited by experts from around the world, Curating Biocultural Collections  draws on real-world experiences, providing examples from ethnobiology, anthropology, agriculture, botany, zoology, and museum curation. The book places a strong emphasis on meeting the needs of collection users and encourages ethical and equitable engagement with source communities. With one hundred photographs, including objects from little-known collections, alongside case studies and a carefully chosen bibliography, this book gives valuable insight for anyone working to preserve valuable resources.

About this title

About the Author:

Jan Salick is senior curator at the Missouri Botanical Garden. Katie Konchar is a biologist and botanist. Mark Nesbitt is curator of the Economic Botany Collection at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Review:

"A stunningly visual and engaging book with a crisp, clear and example rich style. It captivates the reader with its breadth of topics and range of examples, case studies and photographs." (Winner Royal Society of Biology)

"I recommend this book to anyone working in a museum that holds either natural history (especially zoology or botany), archaeological, or anthropological collections. It offers a fresh way of thinking about potential implications and uses for such collections, in a more holistic way than is often achieved in multidisciplinary museums."
  (Journal of Historical Geography)

About this edition

• Publisher: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1842464981
• ISBN 13: 9781842464984
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 250
• Editor: Salick Jan, Konchar Katie, Nesbitt Mark