National Geographic-Maintaining the Gold Standard (1,449 words)

The cataloger makes full use of the Society's skills when testing items. "We have resources no other catalog has," says Berkeley. For instance, dinosaur items get checked by in-house paleontologists, and map-related products are verified by the Society's cartographers.

Items that come to the catalog via the Society's licensing program endure more strenuous quality control—they're taken into the field by actual National Geographic explorers as part of the "Gear On Assignment" program. About 300 explorers, researchers, writers and photographers participate in the program, 30 of which are in the field at any one time.