Clare Valentine
PhD Research
Working Title: Risk and Value Concepts for Natural History Collections.
The concept of risk for natural history collections is usually based around the physical breakdown of material due to the ten agents of deterioration: pests, flood, fire, environmental conditions etc. Nowadays, one should also be considering climate change. A number of techniques have been developed to assess the risks in caring for natural history collections specifically to help prioritise mitigation and ensure their longevity. However, it is often difficult to decide which the best method to use is.
Similarly, monetary valuation of natural history specimens is a minefield of trying to decide on sums relating to the cultural, historical and scientific or intellectual "value" of a specimen. Collections management staff can be put in the difficult position of not being able to give valuations but having to keep a weather eye on the market to know about insurance values for their material in their care.
This is an area that really interests me and which I would like to explore. I aim to examine the various methodologies in depth and try to develop an overview and decision tree to assist collections management staff in deciding which technique will be most useful to them, adding in the component of how to assess true ìvalueî, which is currently lacking from most of the methodologies.
Motivation
Putting collections management theory into practice has always interested me, so when this doctoral programme was first mentioned to me I saw it as the perfect way for me to combine structured research into an topic that I am really interested in, with my career. It is also the right time for me to set myself further academic challenges as it's a while now since I have undertaken any formal study! Additonally, I see it as a way to underline the professionalism of collections management.
Biography
I trained as a biologist at the Queen's University of Belfast (1984-1988) before undertaking a Masters degree in Museums Studies at the University of Leicester (1988-89).
After 2 years working as an assistant curator in Natural Sciences at the Museum and Art Gallery in Plymouth, I moved to the Natural History Museum, London, where I am now the Head of Collections for the Department of Zoology. I am responsible for planning and overseeing the care, maintenance, enhancement, administration and provision of access to the estimated 28 million zoology specimens, and the collections management staff that work on the collection.
I have strong research interests in the following areas of collections management; risk management for collections; integrated pest management; disaster/contingency/salvage planning; transporting dangerous goods; specimen conservation & condition surveys; new methods of specimen preservation; the implications of destructive sampling; and looking into health & safety issues for staff such as biocides particularly arsenic used in the preservation of in vertebrate specimens.
Committee Memberships
2008-2011 Elected as Coordinator of the Natural History Collections Working Group, Conservation Committee, ICOM
2010-2013 Re-elected as Member at Large, Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC) Council
Selected Conference Presentations
2010 Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC) Annual Conference, Ottawa.
Workshop on the Design of Facilities for Fluid-Preserved Natural History Collections
2009 Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC) Annual Conference, Leiden.
Business Continuity and Collections Salvage: An integrated European Approach.
2008 ICOM Committee for Conservation Triennial Meeting, Dehli.
Here today, Gone tomorrow? The dilemma of destructive sampling in a multidisciplinary world.
2008 Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC) Annual Conference, Oklahoma.
Collections Care versus Customer Care: how do you provide access for visiting researchers without compromising curation?
2007 Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC) Annual Conference, Minnosota. The Darwin Centre: evolution of a building in two phases.
Selected Publications
Kelly, M., Edwards A.R., Michelle R. Wilkinson, Alvarez, B., de C. Cook, S., Bergquist P.R., Buckeridge J.S., Campbell H.J., Reiswig H.M., Clare Valentine C, Vacelet, J. 2009. Chapter 1 Porifera In New Zealand Inventory of Biodiversity. Volume 1. Kingdom Animalia: Radiata, Lophotrochozoa, Deuterostomia. Canterbury University Press, 568 [+ 16] p.
Valentine, C, Long S & Collins C. Assessing Standards of Collections Care in a multi-disciplinary institution. 2008. ICOM-CC Natural History Working Group Newsletter Issue 16, February 2008.
Sabin, R.C., Adams, M.P. & Valentine C. 2004. Elephants in the atticÖRIC Arts and Antiques. The Arts Surveyor. June 2004: 2.
Klautau, M. & Valentine, C. 2003. A Revision of the genus Clathrina (Porifera, Calcarea.) Zoological Journal of the Linnaean Society, 139: 1-62.
Andrew, K., Lampard, D., Valentine, C. & Walentowicz, T. 1996. Report on the Second World Congress on the Care and Preservation of Natural History Collections, University of Cambridge, 20-24 August 1996. The Biology Curator. Issue no.7.
Contributions on NHM Porifera specimens to the ETI web database on North East Atlantic Sponge Fauna, EDIT and GBIF.
Contributing author to NHM Collections Management Policies and Procedures.
Contact details: c.valentine@nhm.ac.uk