Sir

Your article on the funding difficulties of Seattle's Burke museum, and its bid for independence, illustrates a common problem faced by university natural history museums (Nature 399, 189; 1999). The article also mentioned the 100-year-old Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History — the largest repository of Oklahoma's heritage. As I was offered the directorship of the Burke and have been director of the Sam Noble museum for 17 years, my views may be germane.

Today, university presidents are selected from a rotating pool of administrators who no longer have a deep understanding of a particular campus. They do not possess any special institutional loyalty. If they avoid offending the governing board, raise enrolment, and increase income, they will succeed. Soon they will move to a more prestigious position. A museum's future hinges on decisions made by these transient administrators, but what can heritage mean to such a person, and how can such a transitory bureaucrat be expected to deal with the special needs of an enduring institution?

The intangible value of scholarship by museum curators, educational benefits for students, and public outreach are small change for administrators focused on costs and benefits. Their concerns are the high cost of storing collections, the low funding for museum research, the decline of taxon-based classes that require specimens, and the low public profile of campus museums. Does the museum produce credit hours to justify more funds? Does it make money? Does it have public support that could cause political problems? The answer to each is usually ‘No’.

Nevertheless, one hears remarkable success stories. The University of Oklahoma has built an outstanding $44 million building (http://www.snomnh.ou.edu), although Oklahoma is a poor state. We, too, were told that a new museum was impossible, but we took the project to the people and drew on their power for support.

University museums, as keepers of the nation's heritage, must develop a long-term strategy that calls on their constituents to understand and support their purposes. It is dangerous for a museum to pull away from its university. Will a private board understand the importance of collections when not used for teaching and research? Will it only be interested in exhibits? Will it see the need for curators?

University museums provide leading scholars in disciplines from systematics to conservation. They train the scientists of tomorrow. Museums must not lose sight of their unique role — to preserve and interpret heritage, contribute knowledge, and educate students and the public. Leaving the university violates the museum's raison d'être. The present administrators will soon be gone, but the people — the ultimate supporters — will remain. Museums are forever.