Collaborative Research: The Paleontology Portal

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PaleoPortal has created a central, interactive entry point to vetted paleontology resources on the Internet for multiple audiences. Responsibilities for development delegated as appropriate to five institutions: UCMP, the American Museum, Bloomsburg University, the Paleontological Research Institute, and the Yale Peabody Museum. The focus will be on: Expanding and updating content by (1) bringing additional collections into the collections database, (2) adding research profiles and RSS feeds, (3) building how to modules on fossil preparation and collection management for smaller museums, and (4) including additional sites in our Famous Flora and Fauna feature. Deepening functionality with the addition of (1) interactive visualizations of large-scale patterns of floral/faunal distributions through time, and (2) a URL checker. Extending audience use by (1) developing an expanded teacher's guide for the site that targets K-12 teachers, (2) building a tool targeting informal science educators that would allow them to easily generate customized kiosk software and content based on PaleoPortal materials, and (3) making the database and the collections portal search software freely available in an effort to reach out to other institutions. The PaleoPortal provides direct access to paleontological information and resources, collections data, and images in an interactive, easy to navigate format. In addition, open access to the services and tools developed by this project will be added and include: (a) packaging and documentation of PaleoPortal distributed collections portal search software for distribution, and (b) a service allowing other projects and partner sites to access, manipulate, and display PaleoPortal content with their own design and functionality. The institutions represented in this collaborative effort have extensive experience and expertise in both research and education and in the integration of the two through the use of web-based technologies. PaleoPortal facilitates the sharing of paleontological research and resources and provides exposure to the geosciences in a format that integrates both biotic and abiotic components of Earth's history. During its development, this function has evolved to meet the needs of a broad and diverse paleontological community, which includes researchers, faculty, graduate students, undergraduate students, pre-college teachers, young people, and other non-scientist members of the public. It does so by providing access to data and information at different levels and through multiple interconnected pathways. The planned enhancements will further extend the use of the PaleoPortal by multiple audiences.