Recent Publications in Natural History

Principal Review: Jia, Lanpo. Early man in China. Principal Review: Chinese Academy of Sciences. Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology. Atlas of primitive man in China.     

Recent Publications in Natural History

Principal Review: Schultes, Richard Evans and Albert Hofmann. Plants of the gods: origins of hallucinogenic use.     

Recent Publications in Natural History

Principal Reviews: Everett, Michael. The Birds of paradise. Skipwith, Peyton. The Great bird illustrators and their art 1730–1930. Parry, Gareth and Rory Putman. Birds of prey. Vickers, Vincent Cartwright. The Google Book.     

Recent Publications in Natural History

Principal Review: Darwin, Charles. The Illustrated origin of species. Abridged and introduced by Richard E. Leakey. Consultants W. F. Bynum and J. A. Barrett     

Recent Publications in Natural History

Principal Review: Sigmon, Becky A. and Jerome S. Cybulski, eds . Homo erectus; papers in honor of Davidson Black. Freeman, R.B . British natural history books, 1495–1900; a handlist.     

Recent Publications in Natural History

LIBRARY AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY: Recent Publications in Natural History is a regular feature of Curator. It lists recent publications under various headings, Mary E. Genett–Editor     

The Value of Natural History Collections

The value of museum natural history collections is commonly poorly explained to, and therefore commonly misunderstood by, the general public. This is an increasingly dangerous situation at a time of tight fiscal constraints; if natural history collections are to survive, those charged with their care will have to do more to broadcast their value as both resources for research and public education. Research values include documenting biotas no longer available and present and past biogeographic distributions, housing type, voucher specimens, and (perhaps most importantly) serving as fertile places for scientific discovery and inspiration. Public values include serving as resources for identification of unknown specimens, hands-on education and the support of systematics, and (perhaps most importantly) as the depository for the final physical evidence for the history and diversity of life on Earth.     

生态文明与自然博物馆

文明是指人类进步的状态,是积极的、进步的文化现象.人类社会发展经历了漫长的文明进化的过程.学者们从人与自然相互作用的角度,把人类文明的发展划分为几种形态:原始文明形态--采集、狩猎文明;次生文明形态--农业文明;继生文明形态--工业文明以及当今提出的新的文明形态--生态文明.……     

Collegiate Priorities and Natural History Museums

Data on curatorial budgets and hiring practices of the University of Minnesota's Bell Museum of Natural History (BMNH) since 1970 are presented and discussed relative to those of academic departments in the College of Biological Sciences (CBS). Throughout the administration of the collegiate dean who recruited the museum into the college, the museum was considered to be a department equivalent and fared neither better nor worse than the departments regarding budgets and faculty recruitment. When a new dean was hired in 1987, the museum ceased to be considered as a department equivalent. Its state-allocated budgets for both public programs and collection curation have been retrenched greatly to mitigate departmental retrenchments. Four curatorial positions vacated by retirement have gone unfilled. Administrative reporting lines for museum directors within universities are discussed. It is concluded that a natural history museum is best viewed and administered as a university resource and responsibility rather than as a departmental or collegiate unit.     

观众在自然博物馆的对话内容研究

通过对话分析,可以了解观众在观展过程中细微、即时的学习行为。本研究采取随机抽样的方式,采取非干预式观察方法对展览观众进行调查,记录其对话及相关互动行为,以访谈法作为辅助了解观众发生对话的原因,采用艾伦的对话分析框架进行内容分析。研究发现:与学习有关的对话发生频率相对较低,群体间的对话以知觉型对话为主。上述调查带来的启示是:可通过展览内容的生活化、展示方式的多样化、展品位置的合理规划以及展示说明的有效性,更有效地引发和促进观众之间的学习型对话。