The Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC) was created in 1985 to meet the concerns of a growing number of individuals involved with the development, management, and care of natural history collections.

The organization is an international society whose mission is to improve the preservation, conservation and management of natural history collections to ensure their continuing value to society.

After 29 years of existence, SPNHC continues to be unique among natural history professional organizations, because of its international scope and multidisciplinary approach to collections management and care. SPNHC has captured international recognition for outstanding commitment to the preservation of collections, as well as a strong record of conducting annual meetings, providing continuing educational opportunities, producing literature that adds to the knowledge base of the museum community, and a variety of successful projects.

SPNHC holds annual meetings and sponsors workshops and symposia that foster the exchange of ideas and information in the field of collections care.

The next and 30th Annual SPNHC Meeting will be held May 17-23, 2015, at the Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL. The theme is Making Natural History Collections Accessible through New and Innovative Approaches and Partnerships. More information, including presentation information, program and registration for this meeting can be found at this link: SPNHC 30th Annual Meeting [1]

iDigBio @ SPNHC 2015

Be sure to check out all of the iDigBio events at SPNHC 2015:

• SPNHC Plenary Session [2]
  • Log in on Tue (8 AM EDT) to listen: http://idigbio.adobeconnect.com/spnhc2015 [3]
• Specimens Full Circle: Collection to Digitization to Data Use Workshop [4]
  • Log in Wed (830 AM EDT) and Thu (830 AM EDT) to listen: http://idigbio.adobeconnect.com/spnhc2015sfc [5]
• iDigBio Small Collections Network Workshop [6]
  • Log in Thu (8 AM EDT) to listen: http://idigbio.adobeconnect.com/scnet [7]
• SPNHC DEMO Camp (sponsored by iDigBio)
  • Log in on Thu (1:30 pm EDT) to listen: http://idigbio.adobeconnect.com/democamp2015 [8]
• Special Interest Group "TCN Coffee Klatch" [9]
• and... come visit us in the iDigBio Booth to learn more about
  • iDigBio
  • More than 28,000,000 specimens and lots of images too!
  • Job Opportunities
  • Find out more about WeDigBio [10]
  • Discover how you can help the GBIF Task Force on Accelerating the Discovery of Biodiversity Collections Data [11]
  • Are you into georeferencing? Ask about the GWG GPS apps data project.
  • What's coming up next at iDigBio and give us your input and feedback for the future of our collections!

SPNHC publishes the Collection Forum [12] an annual, refereed journal covering all aspects of natural history collections care.

The SPNHC Newsletter [13] is published twice a year. It contains reports from the Society’s officers and committees, news items, and other articles of general interest to the membership.

SPNHC also offers a variety of resources, brochures, best practices, grants and awards. For a complete overview of SPNHC, its mission, services and opportunities, please visit www.spnhc.org [14].