Support of Symposium of Modernization of Neotropical Ornithological Collections

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Marion Jenkinson is an adjunct curator of birds at the University of Kansas, and presently serves as Treasurer of the American Ornithologists' Union. Dr. Jenkinson has organized a symposium entitled "Modernization of the Ornithological Collections of Neotropical America", sponsored by the Collections Committee of the American Ornithological Union. The symposium is to be held in conjunction with the Fourth Neotropical Ornithological Congress in Quito, Ecuador, in November, 1991. Collections in Latin America were discussed at the Third Congress in 1987, and the proposed meeting will focus on the curatorial needs created by the recent explosion of biodiversity survey and inventory projects in the Neotropics. This symposium affords an opportunity to disseminate information on the newest curatorial technologies for preserving specimens, and to establish international collaborations for coordinating collecting and curating efforts. A proceedings volume will be published and distributed at no cost to Latin American participants in the symposium, and to natural history libraries in the region. Preserving natural history collections in tropical regions is critical because of the high rate at which habitats are being destroyed, and species are becoming extinct. These museum specimens will provide the sole means of studying many life forms, and their preservation is critical to future generations of researchers.