Improvements for the Invertebrate Zoology Collection of the Museum of Comparative Zoology

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9709892 McHugh The Department of Invertebrate Zoology at the Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ) of Harvard University houses some of the most extensive and historically important metazoan and protozoan collections available to researchers today. Among the approximately 307,100 lots (nearly one million specimens) in the collections are almost 10,000 type specimens. The spider collection is the second largest in the world; the crustacean collection is one of the largest in the U.S.; the cnidarian holdings are among the ten finest in the world; and the hexactinellid sponges probably represent the largest collection in the world. The steady use of the collections by the international scientific community and the large number of publications citing the collections attest to the valuable nature of these holdings. Currently, a severe shortage of space impedes routine curation of the invertebrate collections at the MCZ; only 2.7% of current shelving space is empty and available for collection reorganization and expansion. This project to install a compactorized storage system will make routine collection-related activities more efficient, allow for the integration of the sponge collection and recent acquisitions, and provide space for future acquisitions. These changes will directly improve service to the scientific community and will make future large-scale curatorial projects more feasible.