A New Facility for the Cornell University Museum of Vertebrates: Moving, Compactors, and Cases

该项目部分支持将康奈尔大学脊椎动物博物馆（Cornell University Museum of Vertebrates）搬到康奈尔大学鸟类学实验室（Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology，CLO）正在建设的一座新博物馆设施。 康奈尔大学为这座大楼的新博物馆空间筹集了600多万美元（项目总成本约为3200万美元），该博物馆将于2003年投入使用。 NSF基金将用于：（1）购买紧凑的架子和箱子，用于储存脊椎动物（鱼类、两栖动物、爬行动物、鸟类、哺乳动物）的液体保存标本和干燥标本（皮肤、骨骼、巢和蛋）;（2）提供部分资金，用于将收藏品转移到新设施。 这一举措将是30多年来对博物馆的最大一次改进：博物馆的新家将缓解标本的拥挤，允许扩展空间，并保护收藏品免受与现有设施恶化有关的各种问题的影响。新博物馆还将包括一个最先进的准备设施，大型教学实验室，放射照相室，准备实验室，皮肤病室，步入式冷冻室和分子实验室。该博物馆是一个活跃的大学研究博物馆的国家重要性。 学生和工作人员积极参与原创研究，学生接受策展技术培训，同时帮助将博物馆中的信息传播给地球仪的科学家和野生动物管理人员。 该博物馆收藏了美国东北部最全面的鱼类、鸟类和哺乳动物，其藏品广泛代表了世界各地脊椎动物的多样性。 博物馆标本是记录生态条件变化的不可替代的数据来源，既通过从原始地区收集的标本在人类改变之前的身份，也通过标本所含的组织，这为历史种群的遗传学以及其环境曾经包含的污染物水平提供了一个生化窗口。 因此，这些收集提供了基线条件的衡量标准，并通过不断加入，不断监测环境变化的影响。 该博物馆的工作人员将与鸟类学实验室的脊椎动物生物学家的大型社区合作，以增加存储在博物馆的收藏品和解释的信息，并通过各种网络和媒体传播所获得的知识。

This project partially supports the move of the Cornell University Museum of Vertebrates (CUMV) to a new museum facility in a building currently under construction at the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology (CLO). Cornell has raised over $6M (out of a total project cost of about $32M) for the new museum space in this building, which is on schedule for occupation in 2003. NSF Funds will be used to: (1) purchase compact shelving and cases for storage of both fluid-preserved specimens and dry specimens (skins, skeletons, nests, and eggs) of vertebrates (fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals) and (2) provide partial funding for moving the collections into the new facility. This move will be the largest single enhancement to the CUMV in more than three decades: the new home for the Museum will relieve crowding of specimens, allow expansion space and safeguard the collections against a variety of problems related to the deterioration of the current facility. The new museum will also include a state-of-the art preparation facility, large teaching laboratory, radiography room, preparation lab, dermestid room, walk-in freezer, and molecular laboratory. The CUMV is an active university research museum of national importance. Students and staff are actively engaged in original research, and students are trained in curatorial techniques while they help disseminate the information in the Museum to scientists and wildlife managers throughout the globe. The CUMV contains one of the most comprehensive collections of fish, birds and mammals from the Northeastern United States, and its holdings are widely representative of the diversity of vertebrates throughout the world. Museum specimens are irreplaceable sources of data documenting changes in ecological conditions, both through the identity of specimens collected from pristine localities before alteration by humans, and through the tissues that specimens contain, which provide a biochemical window into the genetics of historical populations as well as the levels of pollutants their environments once contained. These collections thus provide measures of baseline conditions and, through continued accessions, on-going monitoring of the effects of environmental changes. Staff of the CUMV will collaborate with the large community of vertebrate biologists at the Laboratory of Ornithology to increase the information stored in and interpreted from the Museum's collections, and to disseminate the knowledge attained through the variety of web and media outlets.