University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology invertebrate fossils: Databasing and web-accessibility

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This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).The primary goal of this proposal is to computerize taxonomic, geographic, and stratigraphic information for catalogued invertebrate fossils at the University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology (UMMP-IC). The UMMP-IC has long ranked among the most important collections in North America (ranked 7th). The searchable database will be available online and supplemented with digital images of specimens, allowing the scientific community efficient access. The award adds to a recently completed move of collections to new cabinets in a 5000 sq. ft extensively renovated, climate-controlled, secure new facility. Success in this venture will have a transformative effect on UMMP-IC, returning it to the forefront of active research in paleontology, releasing its enormous store of latent paleontological data to an audience of taxonomists, systematists, paleoecologists and paleobiologists. The online database (http://www.paleontology.lsa.umich.edu/UMMP_IC/) will be available to the general public, a growing fraction of who are interested in fossils, the history of life and environment. Critically, the database will be eventually linked with other collections in peer museums, facilitating the transition to online multiple-collection searches. This project will enable the UMMP to strengthen its prominent role in training students in paleontology and museum science by incorporating significant levels of practical database and curatorial skill development.