2024 Inventory of Micropaleontological Collections at the Natural History Museum in Basel, Switzerland

This inventory is a snapshot of continuous registry and documentation of the Micropaleontological Collections at the Natural History Museum in Basel (NMB), Switzerland over the period from 2002 through 2024. It comes in form of a "frozen" 7z archive of the homepage at https://www.micropal-basel.unibas.ch/Colls_NMB/MPCOLNMB.HTML as by 11 July 2024 (final datum). After download and unzipping the inventory expands to 159 MB of hyperlinked html, pdf, word or excel documents. The homepage launches by double clicking on starting file called MPCOLNMB.HTML using a standard web browser (for example Firefox). As maintenance of the above homepage is not secured in future this frozen inventory is intended to aid collection managers and curators at NMB, as well as external visiting scientists to navigate through the status of holdings of micropaleontological collections and related archives at NMB until the above mentioned final datum in times when the NMB will undergo changes due to beforestanding movement into new buildings during the coming years. In many museums change is the constant. This applies also to NMB and its collections and archives on different levels. Curation of museum collections is therefore subject to continuous modification. In the present case, physical storage facilities (rooms, location and type of compactus compartments, cabinets, drawers, shelves, display units, etc) of individual collections are unavoidable but will no longer be updated under www.micropal-basel.unibas.ch. With other words, physical storage locations of collections indicated in the small frame at the top right corner of the front page of the present "frozen inventory" described here reflect the state as by the above mentioned final datum. The same holds true for archival holdings (archive rooms, shelves, storage systems) that are often contextually closely related to individual collections. Also formats of documentation (digital versus analogue, data base systems) are exposed to strong changes because of galoping digitisation efforts. This has strong practical consequences for efficient accessibility of both, collections and archived content related to them, if the physical storage of specimens and storage of important analogue documentation (reports, correspondence, maps or fotos showing sampling locations, field books) occur at different rooms, different buildings, or even multiple repositories of an institution. The preservation and storage of the collection's memory (archives) to specimens is especially important and should be physically as close together as possible because they are contextually related to each other. Often, there exist strong contextual relationships between collections of the same author or between different authors and their teams. Different types of collections (e.g., primary type collections, reference collections to publications, study collections, etc.) or collections from author to author, or sub-collections from the same author, are sometimes intimately linked to autho's or collector's specialist hand libraries, maps archives, image collections, obituaries, or other archival holdings. If collections are physically dislocated, for example due to space problems, which is a common situation in active collections, or during the forthcoming movement of the NMB into a new building in few years, this internal contextual connection is at risk to be lost if there is no detailed record of previous and new storage place. The present register of micropaleontological collections at NMB is by far not complete but represents a mind map of the author at retirement as by the above final datum. In this context the present "frozen inventory" may help to prevent loss of valuable internal memory between collections and archives and so may serve as a resource for "forward curation" and digitisation of collections and related archives during and beyond the transitional phase into NMB's future.本数据集为瑞士巴塞尔自然历史博物馆（Natural History Museum in Basel，简称NMB）微古生物标本馆藏（Micropaleontological Collections）2002年至2024年间的持续登记与归档记录快照。该数据集以2024年7月11日（最终基准日期）的官网存档冻结版7z压缩包形式提供，存档网址为https://www.micropal-basel.unibas.ch/Colls_NMB/MPCOLNMB.HTML。下载并解压后，该存档将展开为159MB的带超链接HTML、PDF、Word或Excel文档。通过标准网页浏览器（如火狐Firefox）双击启动文件MPCOLNMB.HTML即可打开该官网存档。 鉴于该官网未来无法保障持续维护，本冻结版存档旨在协助NMB的藏品管理员、策展人（curators）以及外部到访科学家，在NMB未来数年因搬迁至新馆而发生馆内变更期间，直至上述最终基准日期前，均可顺利查阅梳理NMB微古生物标本馆藏及相关档案的存量现状。 诸多博物馆中，变革皆是常态，NMB及其各级别馆藏与档案亦不例外。因此博物馆藏品管理始终处于持续调整之中。就本次情况而言，各单独馆藏的实体存储设施（包括库房位置、密集存储柜隔间（compactus compartments）类型与布局、储物柜、抽屉、货架、展示装置等）虽属必要，但官网www.micropal-basel.unibas.ch将不再更新此类信息。换言之，本“冻结版存档”首页右上角小框架内标注的馆藏实体存储位置，均反映了上述最终基准日期时的现状。这一点同样适用于通常与单独馆藏存在密切上下文关联的档案存量（包括档案库房、货架、存储系统等）。此外，由于快速数字化浪潮（galoping digitisation）的推进，归档资料格式（包括数字与模拟格式、数据库系统）也正经历剧烈变革。若标本实体存储与重要模拟类归档资料（包括报告、往来信函、标注采样点位的地图或照片、野外记录本等）的存储地点分处不同库房、不同楼宇，甚至机构内的多个馆藏库房，则会对馆藏及其相关归档内容的高效获取造成显著实际影响。 标本与其关联馆藏档案记忆（archives）的保存与存储尤为重要，二者应尽可能在物理位置上相互邻近，因为它们存在紧密的上下文关联。通常，同一作者的馆藏之间，或不同作者及其研究团队的馆藏之间，均存在极强的上下文关联。不同类型的馆藏（例如正模标本馆藏（primary type collections）、出版物参考文献馆藏、研究用馆藏等），或是不同作者间的馆藏、同一作者名下的子馆藏，有时会与作者或采集者的专业私人藏书、地图档案、图像馆藏、讣告或其他档案存量密切绑定。若馆藏因空间不足（这在活跃馆藏中十分常见）而发生实体搬迁，或是在未来数年内NMB搬迁至新馆的过程中，且未对新旧存储位置进行详细记录，则这类内部上下文关联将面临丢失风险。截至上述最终基准日期，NMB微古生物标本馆藏的本登记册尚不完善，但它是作者退休时绘制的馆藏思维导图。在此背景下，本“冻结版存档”可有助于避免馆藏与档案间宝贵的内部关联记忆流失，因此可作为NMB未来搬迁过渡阶段及之后，开展前瞻性藏品管理（forward curation）与馆藏及相关档案数字化工作的参考资源。