16 Oct Edit Your Collection
| HTML Block | Responses to the following questions (1-28) will be components of the USCCN online searchable database available to all users. | ||||||
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| 1. Name of Collection Point of Contact | Harriet Wilson | ||||||
| 2. Current Position | Retired faculty/Volunteer | ||||||
| 3. Collection phone number | (916) 599-6097 | ||||||
| 4. Collection Address | Sierra College Rocklin Campus 5100 Sierra College Blvd. Rocklin, California 95677 United States Map It | ||||||
| 5. Collection email | Email hidden; Javascript is required. | ||||||
| 7. Collection name and abbreviation | Sierra College Microbial Collection | ||||||
| 9. Number of staff that work with the collection (if applicable) | 0 | ||||||
| 10. Organizational structure of the Collection: |
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| 11. What type of organisms are included in the Collection? |
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| 12. Do you have sequencing data? | Yes | ||||||
| Please specify what kind of data | 16S rRNA gene sequences for nearly all bacteria, 18S rRNA gene and intergenic spacer sequences for fungi and yeast plus WGS sequences for 25 selected bacteria. | ||||||
| 13. How many of each type of genus are included in the Collection? |
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| 15. Please choose one of the following categories that best describes your collection. | Research collection (industry or research collection; does not include a plan to distribute strains) | ||||||
| 16. What host associations, if any, does your microbial collection have? |
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| 17. What institution/entity currently houses your collection? (For example, Kansas State University, ARS, private entity) | Sierra College | ||||||
| 18. Is the institution able to guarantee its support to the Collection for the next three to five years? | Unknown | ||||||
| 19. Does your collection have the ability to accept orphan collections at this time? If yes, please describe your capacity to do so. | No | ||||||
| 20. Does your collection contain strains that are currently used or could be used for reference strains such as to identify human, animal or plant pathogens? If yes, please explain | No | ||||||
| 21. Do you utilize best practices guidelines for operation of your culture collection? |
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| 22. What is/are the mechanism(s) of availability and distribution? |
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| Mechanism(s) of availability and distribution | As a volunteer with access to the collection and to the building housing it, I could potentially make the strains available to interested parties. I have shipped some of the strains previously; e.g., to the DSMZ, the NRRL and to the Wadsworth Center in New York. | ||||||
| 23. What are the main subjects or fields of use relevant to your collection? |
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| 24. If applicable, what services does your Collection provide? Check all that apply |
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| 25. Does your Collection provide training opportunities on the following? Check all that apply |
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| 26. If applicable, does your Collection provide consultation on the following? Check all that apply |
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| 27. What institutions fund research that users perform using specimens from your collection? Check all that apply |
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| 28. Is the Collection willing, within reasonable limits and to the extent that the collection is public, to engage in the exchange of cultures with other collections within the framework of the USCCN? | No | ||||||
| 29. Is the Collection willing to engage, within the limits of its capacity to do so, in collaborative programs with other culture collections for the general betterment of the USCCN? | Yes | ||||||
| 30. Do you wish to be contacted by researchers and collaborators about your Collection? | Yes | ||||||
| 31. Would you be interested in collaborating on a project with samples combined from different repositories? | Yes | ||||||
| HTML Block | Responses to the following questions (29-36) will NOT be components of the USCCN online database. Information provided will be for internal use only to enhance USCCN service to participants. | ||||||
| 32. Is the future of your collection dependent on a single individual in the institution? | No | ||||||
| 33. Is there a contingency plan to be able to guarantee the existence of the collection for at least five years, such as at another institution? Please provide as much detail as possible. | Yes | ||||||
| Contingency Plan | I have spoken with Laura Matzer, the new director of the Sierra College Natural History Museum, and she suggested the microbial collection might remain in its current location (Sewell Hall) as part of the museum collection. Currently the microbiology faculty use only a small portion of the collection for their classroom activities, therefore the relocation of the Biological Sciences Department might not impact the collection. The problem of having no "backup" power to the freezer would remain, but perhaps the department would purchase a new freezer and then the college would have a second location for storing the collection or parts of it in the event of a power failure in Sewell Hall. | ||||||
| 34. Is your collection currently or in potential danger of becoming an orphan collection? If yes, what means do you have to save the collection? Please provide as much detail as possible. | Yes | ||||||
| Collection In Danger | I am fully retired since 2021 and Sierra College does not support emeritus faculty in the usual sense (no mail/email/phone is provided after 3 years). The collection is mine in the sense that I prepared most of the cryovials present and have all the data and records associated with the strains present. That said, the collection resides on the Sierra College Rocklin campus within an ultra-low freezer within Sewell Hall. I am attempting to engage other people in saving the collection and believe the museum director and other Sierra College staff might be interested in helping. I know about multiple problems associated with the collection (not least of which is a lack of strain ID on the cryovials), and want to get the collection in the best condition possible for future encounters. I want the strains available for scientific endeavors and believe the USCCN can help make this possible. | ||||||
| 35. Would you like assistance with the orphan collection? | Yes | ||||||
| 36. What are the greatest needs of your collection at this time? (For example: stable funding, personnel needs, quality control procedures, capacity & equipment, visibility, etc.) | The greatest need of the Sierra College collection is a reliable power backup when the PG&E grid fails. Local power outages are frequent. I proposed to the Science Division dean that a commercial grade TESLA wall would be the best solution, but that did not materialize and the dean transferred to an alternate position. | ||||||
| 37. Would you like your collection to be listed in the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) https://www.gbif.org/ | Yes (you will be emailed information by USCCN separately detailing how to register your collection in GBIF) | ||||||
| 38. Does the Collection support the USCCN mission, which is "to facilitate the safe and responsible utilization of microbial resources for research, education, industry, medicine, and agriculture for the betterment of humankind by providing opportunities for US culture collection workers to engage with each other and with the broader culture collection community." | I agree to support the mission of the USCCN | ||||||
| 39. How can USCCN best serve you? | I'm not sure how the USCCN can best serve me, but having somebody interested in the collection is a major "game changer" for me. I had pretty much given up hope that the collection would ever be recognized or used outside the college. Because it is a living collection, my fear is that at some point the power will fail, nobody will check and the strains will all die. |