On March 20, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Director John Holdren issued a memorandum requiring that federal scientific agencies create a draft scientific-collections management and public access policy. Scientific collections include rocks, fossils, tissue samples, etc.

The memorandum is a result of the 2011 passage of Section 103 of the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010, which requires the Administration to establish a working group under the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) for the purposes of dissemination and stewardship of federally sponsored unclassified data and peer-reviewed publications.

Agencies can publish digital reproductions of their collections to satisfy the goals of the memorandum. Agencies must report their draft policy to the OSTP within six months.

Sources: National Science Foundation; The White House Blog