Archiving the History of Life: High-Density Storage to Solve Space Needs for an Invertebrate Paleontology Research and Teaching Collection

自然历史博物馆和堪萨斯大学生物多样性研究中心获得了一笔赠款，用于重新安置无脊椎动物化石和微化石收藏。这些化石的收集为我们了解过去的生命提供了主要的基础，并有助于勘探石油储量、煤炭和矿产资源。这些藏品是堪萨斯大学古生物学项目不可或缺的一部分。它由来自世界各地的约85万件标本组成，其中包括过去120年来研究的6500多件标本。然而，没有可用的空间来扩展集合。为了缓解拥挤并为扩大收藏提供空间，我们将安装一个最先进的高密度存储系统。新的储存系统将包括手动移动压实机，可容纳现有的箱子，并为新的储存箱子提供空间，最终大大扩大该司的收集能力。这个具有成本效益的馆藏改善项目将缓解馆藏的严重拥挤，并解决因拥挤而产生的严重问题。缓解拥挤将使我们能够扩大我们的收藏，容纳我们现在拥有的适当有价值的研究和教学收藏品，并采用与我们的教学，研究和公共服务的长期目标相匹配的孤儿收藏品。实现这些目标将使我们能够发展馆藏的广度和深度，从而增强它们在研究、教育和公共服务方面的全球影响力。

A grant has been awarded to The Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Research Center at the University of Kansas for rehousing the Invertebrate fossils and microfossil collections. These fossil collections help to provide the principal basis for our understanding of past life and are useful in the exploration for petroleum reserves, coal, and mineral resources. The collection is integral to the program in paleontology at the University of Kansas. It consists of some 850,000 specimens from all parts of the world including more than 6,500 type or figured specimens that have been studied during the past 120 years. No space is available, however, to expand the collection. To alleviate crowding and provide space for expanding the collections, we will install a state-of-the-art, high-density storage system. The new storage system will comprise manual, mobile compactors that accommodate the existing cases and provide space for new storage cases, ultimately significantly expanding the division's collection capacity. This cost-effective, collection-improvement project will alleviate critical crowding of the collection and solve serious problems that stem from that crowding. Alleviating crowding will enable us to expand our collections, to house properly valuable research and teaching collections now in our possession, and to adopt orphaned collections that mesh with our long-term goals of teaching, research, and public service. Achieving these goals will enable us to develop both the breadth and depth of our collections, thereby enhancing their global impact on research, education, and public service.