REU: Computerization of the Cornell Ichthyology Collection

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The Cornell Ichthyology Collection contains approximately 1.5 million preserved fishes. The Collection represents the diversity of fishes worldwide, but concentrates most heavily on North American freshwater fishes, and it contains the type specimens for 40 North American species. The Collection regularly provides information on the collection to a wide variety of scientific, government and public users and sends thousands of specimens out on loan to scientists at other institutions. However, some requests are currently impractical or impossible to answer. For example, the staff frequently receive inquiries for information on all the specimens from a particular state or other locality. With the current, ledger- based catalogue, such an inquiry takes weeks of time to answer, and all other collections activities must be postponed. This project, which will provide equipment and personnel to enter data on the entire collection into a computerized data base, will allow the Collection to answer such questions quickly and will increase the efficiency of all aspects of collection management.