Digital Access to the Field Museum's Neotropical Plant Types Collection

在迈克尔·狄龙博士的指导下，向菲尔德博物馆提供了一笔赠款，以部分支持一项倡议，即对23,800件新热带维管植物类型藏品和13,200张柏林底片进行数据库和图像处理。将扫描被识别为类型的标本标本表；将捕获、清理、地理参考原始标签中的核心数据，并自动处理以用于档案存储和网络分发。该项目将根据原始文献和修订作品，通过核实每个标本的类型状态来增加这些数据的价值。数据和图像将存放在博物馆最近购买的KE Software EMU(电子博物馆)数据库系统中，并立即在网上提供；博物馆合作者的门户网站也将提供这些数据和图像。将KE Software的门户网站添加到动车组数据库中将使博物馆的植物部能够增加标本数据的分发，加强与密苏里州植物园合作，通过网络提供大量中美洲标本数据的努力。数据和图像将通过DVD被送回拉丁美洲所有主要的草药基地。该领域的植物学收藏是世界上最大的开花植物和隐花植物集合之一，总计约270万个标本，其中约4万个是模式标本。在这一数字中，有2.8万种是新热带开花植物。模式集合是在物种和种下级别描述和划定生物的关键要素。要正确评估全球、区域和当地的生物多样性，就必须随时获取类型集合和相应的信息，如原始文献。该项目通过在线提供高质量的图像和相应的标签信息，以满足科学界的需要和要求，解决了出于纯粹的分类学目的而频繁借阅有价值的模式标本的不切实际的问题。与模式标本验证相关的数据增加了模式集合的整体价值。该项目为国际科学界提供了重要的服务，特别是在拉丁美洲，那里通常不存在用于鉴定的植物群，而那些通常没有照片或插图的植物群。将标本数据送回最初收集标本的国家将使国内研究人员能够利用这些数据来改进他们的生物清单和维管植物的分类研究。它还将加强与玻利维亚、哥斯达黎加、危地马拉、厄瓜多尔、墨西哥、秘鲁和其他国家当地机构的合作和积极项目。在实地博物馆，这些项目将包括对人员进行数据库管理、植物分类学和模式标本验证方法方面的培训。该项目将使芝加哥地区的拉丁美洲学生有机会与菲尔德博物馆的研究人员合作，通过利用高科技拉美实习生的合作计划来提高博物馆的网络展示质量。

A grant has been awarded to The Field Museum under the direction of Dr. Michael Dillon for partial support of an initiative to database and image 23,800 type collections of vascular plants from the Neotropics and 13,200 Berlin Negatives. Herbarium specimen sheets identified as types will be scanned; core data from original labels will be captured, cleaned, georeferenced, and automatically processed for archival storage and web distribution. The project will add value to these data through verification of the type status of each specimen based on original literature and revisionary works. Data and images will reside in the Museum's recently acquired KE Software EMu ('Electronic Museum') database system and be immediately available online; they will also be made available for access through the portals of Museum collaborators. The addition of KE Software's portal to the EMu database will allow the Museum's Botany Department to increase distribution of specimen data, enhancing an effort to deliver large quantities of Mesoamerican specimen data via the web, in collaboration with the Missouri Botanical Garden. Data and images will be repatriated via DVDs to all major herbaria in Latin America. The Field's Botany collections rank among the world's largest assemblage of flowering plants and cryptogams, totaling about 2.7 million specimens, some 40,000 of which are types. Of this number, 28,000 represent Neotropical flowering plants. Type collections are the critical element in the description and delimitation of organisms at the species and infraspecific levels. Ready access to type collections and corresponding information, such as original literature, is indispensable to correct assessment of global, regional, and local biodiversity. This project addresses the impracticality of frequent loans of valuable type specimens for purely taxonomic purposes by providing online availability of high-quality images and corresponding label information to meet the needs and demands of the scientific community. Data pertinent to the verification of type specimens increase the overall value of a type collection. The project offers an important service to the international scientific community, especially in Latin America, where floras for identification often do not exist and those that do typically are devoid of photos or illustrations.Repatriation of specimen data to the countries where the specimens were originally collected will permit in-country researchers to use these data to improve their biotic inventories and taxonomic studies of the vascular plants. It will also enhance collaborations and active projects with local institutions in Bolivia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, and other countries. At the Field Museum, these projects will include training of personnel in methods for databasing, plant taxonomy, and verification of type specimens. The project will give Chicago-region Latin American students a chance to collaborate with Field Museum researchers to improve the quality of the Museum's web presence by leveraging the collaborative program of HiTech Latin American interns.