Collections in Context

Proceedings of the 5th International Meeting of European Bird Curators, Natural History Museum Vienna, August 29th-31st 2007, Vienna, Austria

Publication of the Proceedings of the 5th International Meeting of European Bird Curators is not only intended as a documentation of contributions delivered to an international audience – the present volume should likewise be understood to convey the serious message that museums matter and that their collections form a part of human self-understanding. That collections are not islands in the turbulent seas of science but represents an essential part of the conditio humana and that the only way for their proper understanding is to be found in their context with one another and with nature and mankind.