We reply to the comments made by Benvenuti et al. (2022) about our paper on the Italian natural history museums and scientific collections and the need of a centralized hub and repository. While agreeing that digitization is a useful tool to valorize each museum and collection, we still believe that the suggestion of a centralized hub is valid and necessary. This would largely help in boosting coordination among museums, sharing personnel and resources, and in providing a place to deposit scientific collections that do not fit the scope of smaller museums.
Keywords: Digitization; repository; scientific collections; specimens.
Franco Andreone, Ferdinando Boero, Marco A. Bologna, Giuseppe M. Carpaneto, Riccardo Castiglia, Spartaco Gippoliti, Bruno Massa, Alessandro Minelli.