Dear Charlie,

It seems to me that in this digital world, such 
ambiguity can wreak considerable havoc.

The Florida Museum of Natural History was known 
as FLMNH for years, but not long ago they 
officially changed the acronym to UF for 
catalogued museum lots so as to avoid confusion 
with Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History 
(FMNH). Thus FLMNH 123123 became UF 123123 
overnight and confusion with FMNH 123123 was made far less likely.

On the other hand, if someone is looking for USNM 
123123 and can't find it because it's now NMNH 
123123, we have a potential problem. I suppose, 
however, that systems can have functional 
redundancy and allow either acronym to access the unique lot.

Harry


I days of pure digital At 12:46 AM 10/5/2014, [log in to unmask] wrote:
>And then there is the acronym CMNH which I have seen used for the Carnegie
>Museum of Natural History and also for the Cleveland Museum of Natural
>History and the Cincinnati Museum of Natural History and all are within
>several hours drive of each other. The Carnegie Museum now used CM, which
>could still apply to any of these institutions.
>
>Best solution is to define the acronyms in the paper where they are used.
>
> > I see no problem with this match-up.
> >
> > Harry
> >
> >
> > At 05:34 PM 10/4/2014, worldwide wrote:
> >>Would the new Smithsonian museum name then not
> >>be confused with National Museum of Natural
> >>History (France)?  If the acronym for the
> >>National Museum of Natural History (U.S.) is
> >>changed to NMNH, it is still different that
> >>National Museum of Natural History (France) MNHN
> >>for Muséum national d'histoire naturelle.  Confusing at best...
> >>
> >>Rich
> >>
> >>
> >>At 04:57 PM 10/4/2014, you wrote:
> >>>Other nitpickers among us,
> >>>
> >>>I take it, based on Internet propaganda, that
> >>>the United States National Museum should now be
> >>>referred to as the National Museum of Natural
> >>>History. This is "our" division of the
> >>>Smithsonian Institution in the nation's capital.
> >>>
> >>>For formal taxonomic purposes, does the
> >>>time-honored acronym, USNM, survive the
> >>>revisionists', or has it been "emended" to NMNH?
> >>>
> >>>Harry
> >>>
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>
>Regards,
>Charlie
>.................................................
>Charlie Sturm
>
>Treasurer
>American Malacological Society
>
>Research Associate - Section of Mollusks
>Carnegie Museum of Natural History
>Pittsburgh, PA, USA
>
>Associate Professor - Family Medicine
>Fellow-American Academy of Family Practice
>Fellow-Academy of Wilderness Medicine
>
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