Dear all
I am coordinating a feature -- or "Briefing" -- on research in natural
history and science museums, which will be published in the journal Nature
at the beginning of the summer. Nature staff writers involved will include
Colin McIlwain in our Washington office, Henry Gee in London, and Asako
Saegusa in Tokyo.

The articles will analyse various aspects of the challenges and obstacles
facing museum research, and seek to identify and analyse trends and
pressures in the changing nature of museum research and how these are being
met.
More broadly, a running theme will be changes in the role of museums as a
place of scholarship with respect to universities and research
organizations.
We will also look at such areas as the impact of the growing role of public
understanding on research activities, and the overall impact of social
priorities -- with a focus perhaps on biodiversity, for example -- and new
technologies.
Similarly, we will seek to identify trends and challenges specific to
various disciplines of research carried out by museums, such as in
paleontology.
A more elusive but perhaps interesting issue to be explored is that of the
changing role of collections, and of curators and scientists in their
maintenance.

I am at an early stage in my research and keen to take a novel, open and
forward-looking approach. I wish therefore in a preliminary step to try to
consult as broadly as possible the opinion of people working within the
various sectors involved, in order to identify what you feel are important
issues that Nature could usefully address in a feature of this sort. It
would be of great help if any of you who may have strong opinions or
thoughts, would be so kind as to send me a few paragraphs outlining any
particular issues which you feel deserve to be looked at in detail. Please
send not to the list, but to my personal e-mails: [log in to unmask], and
[log in to unmask] --please copy all correspondence to both addresses.

Similarly, if you can send me any relevant recent published material of
your own or colleagues concerning such issues (preferably by e-mail, but
fax is okay), or point me to relevant URLs, this would also be welcome.
Please also feel free to copy this e-mail to any of your colleagues (with a
copy to me) who may have specific expertise (any suggestions for
well-informed contacts would also be much appreciated).

Many thanks for any input you may be able to provide.
I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours faithfully


Declan Butler

European correspondent
Nature
Paris news bureau
30 avenue Secretan, 75019 Paris, France
Tel (33) 1 44 52 91 42
Fax (33) 1 44 52 06 98
e-mails; [log in to unmask], and [log in to unmask] (please copy all
correspondence to both addresses)

PS For your information, copies of several past Briefings -- for example my
recent one on xenotransplantation -- are available on the home page of our
website (www.nature.com)