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Sarah Newhouse
Grasshopper Collection
The Academy of Natural Sciences
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Table of Contents
Overview – 2-6
Mission and Goals – 2-4
Demographics – 4
Collection Parameters – 5
Community and Patron Needs – 5-6
Subject Areas and Formats Collected – 6-9
Subject Areas – 6
Formats – 7
Users – 7
Selection Responsibility and Criteria – 7-8
Selection Aids – 8-9
Miscellaneous – 9-10
Gifts – 9
Discard and Deselection – 9-10
Evaluation – 10
Complaints and Censorship – 10
Bibliography – 11
Overview
Mission and Goals
As the biodiversity of our planet is lessening daily, scientists around the world are rushing to preserve
as much information as possible about the environment around us. The Academy of the Natural
Sciences is proud to be a part of this massive undertaking. Our collections of specimens and data are
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among the most extensive and well-documented in the world, especially the Etymology Collection,
which was founded in 1812 and has since been a constant strength of the Academy's holdings
(“History”). The Grasshopper Collection at the Academy of Natural Sciences is the world's largest
collection of specimens of the taxonomic family Orthoptera, which includes all species and genera of
grasshoppers and crickets as well as the notes and documentation that accompany each specimen
(“Entomology”). This collection is represented in digital form by the Orthoptera Species File, an online
database of records containing data about the specimens in the Grasshopper Collection. This database
can be found at http://osf2.orthoptera.org/HomePage.aspx. As the 2008 Annual Report has indicated,
the focus of collection development in the Academy as a whole is shifting from acquisition and into
digital preservation and access (Annual Report, 11). For the Entomology Department, this means
uploading and transcribing our records into digital format in the Orthoptera Species File.
The development and maintenance of the Orthoptera Species File and the specimens in the
Grasshopper Collection support the goals of the Academy (“Strategic Plan”):
1. Improving understanding of the diversity, ecology, and evolution of life.
2. Developing and applying science to protect the environment.
3. Advancing public interest and engagement in natural sciences and environment issues.
4. Preserving the heritage of natural science in specimens, images, words, and numbers.
The collection itself and any access to it through its physical location and displays at the Academy or
through the Orthoptera Species File supports all four goals. By allowing the public to see the diversity
of the collection through exhibits and any public access of the online database we hope to raise
awareness of biological diversity, and thus help in accomplishing goals two and three: encouraging the
public to protect the environment and get them interested in natural science. Recording data about our
specimens accomplishes goal four, and preserves valuable data about the natural world in many
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different forms (specimens, photographs, digital images, digital sound files, numerical data, dates, etc.).
The Board of Trustees wants to focus the Academy's energy in collection development on digitizing
and increasing access to our vast collections. Specifically, the Board recommends that the first priority
of collection development should be to “continue and accelerate the digitizing of specimens, books,
manuscripts, and images, with priority for type specimens and unique texts and images” (“Strategic
Plan”). The development and maintenance of the Orthoptera Species File supports this aim, as it is an
entirely digital collection of information on our grasshopper and cricket specimens.
So in support of this new initiative for growth and new kinds of access we put forward this preliminary
draft of a collection development policy, one that will “assure continuity and consistency in the
collecting program despite changes in staffing and funding” (Evans, 51) and guide our collection into
the future. In undertaking this policy writing, we also propose that the Academy conduct several user
surveys to determine how patrons are using the Grasshopper Collection and what measures – aside
from digitizing – we can take to improve the users' experiences.
Demographics
Some specimens from the Grasshopper Collection are available to visitors to the Academy of Natural
Sciences when they are used in displays, dioramas, and exhibits. In this capacity, the specimens' service
community is anyone who walks through the Academy's doors, including and especially student
groups, which comprise the majority of our visitors. The entire collection as represented in the
Grasshopper Collection or the Orthoptera Species File has a more limited service community, usually
made up of scholars, researchers, and scientists, but available to a wider ranger of individuals,
including “resource managers, policy makers, educators, and others concerned with biodiversity
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conservation” (“About”).
Collection Parameters
Our entomology collection contains specimens, records, and documents dating back to 1812, when it
was founded by naturalist Thomas Say and his wife, Lucy Sistaire (“History”). Since then, the
grasshopper and cricket collection has grown to include specimens of and information on over 24,580
species within the insect family Orthoptera, the records of which can be accessed through the online
database and include images, measurements, location, sound files, name of collector, and date of
specimen collection (OSF Online).
Community and Patron Needs
As part of developing this collection policy, the Academy would undertake a patron survey to
determine who uses not only the Academy itself, but also the many collections including the
Grasshopper Collection. Our preliminary estimate at the time of the writing of this draft is that 80% of
the visitors to the Academy are students under the age of 18. These students would experience the
Grasshopper Collection in bits and pieces, as it is included in exhibits and displays within the Academy
itself. As for visitors to the physical archives and Grasshopper Collection, we estimate that 95-100% of
them are scholars and researchers. Users of the online database are harder to quantify because
searching it it does not require registration. Editing and adding to the database does require registration
though, and of the registered users, 88% hold a PhD in a natural science field. The remaining 12% are
independent researchers and naturalists not affiliated with a research project or academic program.
The needs of our user community are educational and informational. The Academy of Natural Sciences
is a popular field trip destination for local schools and a common stop for tourists (especially those with
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families and/or young children). The Grasshopper Collection assists in public education when its
specimens are displayed within the museum and used in demonstrations and educational programs. The
scientific and naturalist community accesses the Grasshopper Collection in the greatest numbers via the
Orthoptera Species File and has mostly informational needs (although certainly some of this data is in
turn used for education by the users who access it). Before committing to a final collection
development plan, as with the user demographics, a survey of patrons and users would be conducted to
determine how patrons are using the Grasshopper Collection. We would then examine that data to find
ways of tailoring our collection and access to the collection in ways that will increase its use and make
access to it more efficient.
Subject Areas and Formats Collected
Subject Areas
Our collection of specimens is composed entirely of insects of the family Orthoptera and the
documentation and data from these specimens falls under Library of Congress subjecting heading
QL461-599.82. Using the Research Libraries Group's conspectus model, we evaluate the subject areas
of grasshopper and cricket specimens and their documentation to be at Level 5:
Comprehensive Level: A collection which, so far as is reasonably possible, includes all
significant works of recorded knowledge (publications, manuscripts, and other forms), in
all applicable languages, for a necessarily defined and limited field. This level of
collecting intensity is one that maintains a "special collection." The aim, if not
achievement, is exhaustiveness. Older material is retained for historical research. In law
collections, this includes manuscripts, dissertations, and material on non-legal aspects
(“Collecting Levels”).
Our collection is the largest in the world and we pride ourselves on its exhaustiveness while we strive
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to document new or rare species and genera of Orthoptera.
Formats
The formats collected are few, but the depth of the collection is the focus of current development
strategies. The majority of the Grasshopper Collection is documentation about the grasshoppers and
crickets and their capture, sighting, or tagging, which would fall into the category of manuscripts and
archival materials. These files also include photographs and digital images and audio files. Of course,
we also have an extensive collection of specimens of the insects themselves. All of our material is
represented in electronic format in an online database, The Orthoptera Species File.
Users
Without undertaking the aforementioned user survey, we estimate our primary users to be researchers
seeking to add to their own knowledge or to add their information to our collection. The secondary
users would be graduate students who use our physical and digital collections for their own research.
The tertiary users are adults, a larger, less defined group of individuals which includes farmers,
researchers, activists, and naturalists. The use of our collection by school age children is important to
us, even though they are not in one of our major groups of users, because of the importance they have
with respect to the mission and daily of The Academy of Natural Sciences. While we do consider their
needs when planning how our collection will interact with the Academy's collections as a whole and
how our collection will be used in this capacity, we nonetheless want to plan the development and
preservation of the Grasshopper Collection with the needs of researchers foremost in mind.
Selection Responsibility and Criteria
While specimens and data are sent to the Academy from all over the world, the ultimate responsibility
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for what enters our Grasshopper Collection rests with Jason Weintraub, the Entomology Collections
Manager. While Weintraub is responsible for day-to-day decisions and the acceptance or rejection of
new data and specimens, he may defer decisions to or seek advice from the Curator of Entomology,
Dr. Jon Gelhaus, or Dr. Daniel Otte, head of the Entomology Department at the Academy. Material
entered into the online database is monitored by individuals who have taken responsibility for specific
subject areas. Their names are listed by subject area on the Orthoptera Species File website.
We have three main criteria for selection of new specimens:
1. Is the species and variety of the specimen already represented in our collection in
appropriate numbers? This number will vary depending on the coloration, age, location,
and rarity of the species.
2.
If there are other specimens of the same species in our collection, what is their
condition? If their condition is deteriorating, it may be wise to invest in a new specimen.
3. What is the demand for specimens of this species? If this specimen is frequently brought
out of storage or if the only specimen is usually on display, then it may be wise to invest
in another specimen.
4. What is the situation of the species in the wild? As part of our goal to encourage the
documentation of biodiversity, we would place the acquisition of rare or endangered
specimens before the acquisition of common ones.
Selection Aids
The resources and collections maintained by the Entomology Department at the Academy of Natural
Sciences are the most extensive documentation of existing species of grasshoppers and crickets in the
world. As such, there are not any comprehensive lists that we can use to aid our collection
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development. We rely primarily on the literature in the field of Entomology to provide us with
information about newly discovered and recently endangered species and that should be documented
within our collection. We also rely on the research done in the field and the willingness of those
researchers to communicate their findings with us and share their specimens and data with us via the
online database.
Miscellaneous
Gifts
Due to current budgetary and spatial constraints, the Grasshopper Collection can not accept all
donations of specimens and data. Gifts are accepted only when they are:
1. Specimens not currently in our collection
2. Documentation from a researcher or scientist who is represented elsewhere in our
collection and has made a respected contribution to the field of biological sciences
3. Photographs, recorded sound, or other data currently not in the collection, for a species
already represented in our collection
We hope that these guidelines will prevent us from accepting donations that do not fit into the
Academy's collections. Doing this will save us resources, time, and money that would otherwise be
spent on deselecting, cataloging, and preservation procedures for the new additions.
Discard and Deselection
As most specimens still have some educational value even if damaged, we try to retain those currently
in our collection until they are damaged to the point that it interferes with a researcher's ability to gain
information from them. That said, our digitizing project is currently focusing on these damaged
specimens, in an attempt to preserve and provide access to as much information about them as possible
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before they deteriorate further. We will, however, not hesitate to discard of an item that is past the point
of usefulness. As part of the final draft of this collection development policy, we suggest a survey of
researchers and scientists to determine at which point these specimens become unusable.
Evaluation
Evaluation of the collection will be done by the on an ongoing basis by the Entomology Collections
Manager with an annual summary provided for items discarded and acquired.
Complaints and Censorship
The nature of our collection means that we deal infrequently with censorship complaints and only
slightly more frequently encounter complaints about the condition or scope of the collection itself. We
recommend having an official complaint form that a user can fill out, which will be delivered to the
Collections Manager and addressed promptly.
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Bibliography
Academy of the Natural Sciences. “The Academy of Natural Sciences 2008 Report: The Academy at
Work.” The Academy of Natural Sciences, December 2008. Web. 19 Jan. 2010.
 – . “Entomology.” Ansp.org. The Academy of the Natural Sciences, n.d. Web. 19 Jan. 2010.
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– .“History.” Ansp.org. The Academy of the Natural Sciences, n.d. Web. 20 Jan. 2010.
 – . “Strategic Plan.” Ansp.org. Academy of the Natural Sciences, 1 June 2007. 20 Jan. 2010.
“Collecting Levels – Acquisitions.” Loc.gov. Library of Congress, n.d. Web. 21 Jan. 2010.
“Collecting and Preserving Insects and Mites: Tools and Techniques.” Usda.gov. United States
Department of Agriculture, 2005. Web. 23 Jan. 2010.
Evans, G. Edward and Margaret Zamosky-Saponaro. Developing Library and Information Center
Collections. 5th ed. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2005. Print.
OSF Online. The Orthoptera Species File Online, 2007. Web. 20 Jan. 2010.
 –. “About the Orthoptera Species File Online” Osf2.orthoptera.org. The Orthoptera Species File
Online, 2007. 19 Jan. 2010.