Sorry if this is a bit of a noob question and this has been covered elsewhere as this is my first step into the foray at tdwg. Why is this only being split into separate ownership and custodianship terms? It strikes me that a collection (or specimen for that matter) may have multiple related institutions so if we allow multiple institution codes but tag each with a relationship type then it is more flexible. For example we could have a “current custodian” as well as a “usual custodian” for something that is not in its normal place. I also wonder whether by describing this as Institution rather than an Agent this limits the type of entity that can be tagged – a custodian or owner might be a private collector.

John van Breda

Biodiverse IT

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