CSBR: Natural History Collections -- Digitizing the Historical Egg Sets of the Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology

西部脊椎动物基金会（WFVZ）是加利福尼亚州文图拉市的一家非营利性博物馆。它收藏了超过20万套已编目的鸟蛋和1.8万个鸟巢，是北美此类藏品中规模最大的。尽管基金会收到的最多的电子信息请求与这些鸟类（雀形目鸟类）有关，但世界鸟类保护区40%的栖息鸟类鸟蛋的数据还没有被数字化。通过这笔拨款，WFVZ将聘请本科生生物学助理，对7.5万套卵子进行全面计算机化、地理参考和扫描记录，并对它们进行拍照。这些数据和照片将通过ORNIS/VerteNet、iDigBio和WFVZ网站（http://www.wfvz.org）等媒体和互联网资源与研究人员和公众共享。鸟蛋壳对于了解环境影响和其他重要问题，如全球气候变化和污染的影响，非常有用和重要；物种之间的关系;鸡蛋颜色;以及历史和当前的分布、繁殖日期、窝卵大小、蛋大小和蛋壳厚度。该项目将培训年轻科学家关于博物馆科学、生物信息学和鸟类学的知识，并将吸引公众参与，因为WFVZ与当地社区有着密切的联系。该项目将提高公众的？美国对科学的参与及其对科学研究的理解。

The Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology (WFVZ) is a non-profit museum in Ventura Co., California. It houses collections of more than 200,000 cataloged sets of birds' eggs and 18,000 nests -- the largest of such collections in North America. Data for 40% of the WFVZ's egg sets of perching birds of the world have not yet been digitized, although the greatest numbers of electronic information requests the Foundation receives deal with these birds (the Passerines). Through this grant, the WFVZ will hire undergraduate biology assistants to fully computerize, georeference, and scan the records for 75,000 egg sets, and photograph them. The data and photos will be shared with researchers and the public through several media and Internet sources, including ORNIS/VerteNet, iDigBio, and the WFVZ's website (http://www.wfvz.org). Bird eggshells are extremely useful and important for understanding environmental impacts and other important issues such as the impacts of global climate change and pollution; species relationships; egg coloration; and historic and current distributions, breeding dates, clutch sizes, egg sizes, and eggshell thicknesses. This project will train young scientists about museum science, bioinformatics, and ornithology, and will engage the general public as well because of the WFVZ's strong connections with its local community. The project will enhance the public?s involvement in science and its understanding of scientific research.