CSBR: Natural History: Implementation of an Integrated Database Platform for the University of Michigan Biological Collections

该项目凸显了密歇根大学 (UM) 的一项新努力，旨在将其丰富多样的自然历史博物馆藏品（超过 1600 万件植物学、古生物学和动物学标本）实体和虚拟整合为可用于研究、教学和公共宣传的可用资源。该大学致力于为三个博物馆建造一个新的共享设施，并在不同的博物馆之间采用一个通用的数据库平台。这些活动将增强数据的可访问性，并改善所有馆藏的综合研究和教育项目。该项目的具体目标是通过首次将过去两个世纪以来以 UM 为基地的三个主要多学科探险的样本、笔记和其他形式的数据链接在一起，升级和整合 60 多个不同的数据库。其中包括 a) 1830 年代对密歇根州的第一次自然历史调查； b) 1870 年代由约瑟夫·比尔·斯蒂尔 (Joseph Beal Steere) 领导的大学首次环球科学考察； c) 1930 年代和 1940 年代，沃尔特·科尔茨 (Walter Koelz) 领导的一系列喜马拉雅地区探险活动收集了大量鸟类、植物以及文化和人类学文物。古生物学博物馆最近的一项重要数字资产是一系列 2D 和 3D 图像（包括动画），记录了猛犸象等大型哺乳动物骨骼以及它们发现地点的布局。这些说明了密歇根大学博物馆正在进行的国际研究，并将被纳入博物馆管理系统。计划的改进将提高这些藏品对于基础跨学科研究的价值和实用性，并为学生在各个 STEM 领域做好准备。与三个多学科探险相关的所有物品和数据，包括实际标本、原始野外记录、图像和其他元数据，都将被数字化，然后使用 KE 软件电子博物馆数据管理系统 (KE EMu) 进行数据库化，该系统已被采用作为大学博物馆的通用数据库平台。这将为从这些收藏活动中获得的所有信息提供以前未实现的跨收藏和跨博物馆访问，并将构成为每次探险创建特定网站的基础。这些项目旨在为公众和研究界（包括历史学家和社会科学家）以及 K-12、本科生和研究生级别的学生培训和教育提供新信息（五名研究生和十名本科生将在赠款下接受特定培训）。 1830 年代对密歇根州进行的第一次自然历史调查尤为重要，因为它是唯一一次记录了该州部分地区原始定居前条件的调查，但其组成尚未得到系统评估。总体而言，该项目将通过共同的藏品管理系统使自然历史藏品更易于访问和相互联系，从而显着扩大其综合自然历史藏品的外展范围、教育和研究价值。它将促进校园内博物馆单位之间更大的合作，并使大学能够生成所有藏品的综合搜索结果。有关密歇根大学自然历史博物馆及其藏品的更多信息，请访问博物馆网站：http://herbarium.lsa.umich.edu/、http://www.lsa.umich.edu/ummz/ 和 http://www.lsa.umich.edu/paleontology/。

This project highlights a new effort at the University of Michigan (UM) to consolidate its rich and diverse natural history museum collections (over 16 million specimens in Botany, Paleontology, and Zoology) both physically and virtually into an accessible resource for research, teaching, and public outreach. The University has committed to build a new, shared facility for the three museums as well as to adopting a common database platform across the different museums. These activities will enhance data accessibility and improve integrative research and educational projects across all collections. The specific goals of this project are to upgrade and consolidate more than 60 disparate databases by linking together for the first time specimens, notes, and other forms of data from three major multidisciplinary expeditions that were based at UM over the past two centuries. These include a) the first natural history survey of Michigan in the 1830s; b) the first circum-global scientific expedition by the university led by Joseph Beal Steere in the 1870s; and c) a series of expeditions to the Himalayan region in the 1930s and 1940s led by Walter Koelz that amassed a huge collection of birds, plants, and cultural and anthropological artifacts. An important more recent digital asset at the Museum of Paleontology is a series of 2D and 3D images (including animations) that document large mammal bones such as mammoths and the layout of the sites where they were discovered. These illustrate the kind of ongoing international research that is being carried out at the UM museums and will be incorporated into the museum management system. The improvements planned will increase the value and utility of these collections for basic interdisciplinary research and the preparation of students in a variety of STEM fields.All objects and data associated with the three multidisciplinary expeditions, including actual specimens, original field notes, imagery, and additional metadata will be digitized and then databased using the KE software Electronic Museums data management system (KE EMu) that is being adopted as the common database platform for the university's museums. This will provide previously unrealized cross-collection and cross-museum access to all information derived from these collection events, and it will form the basis for creating specific web sites for each of the expeditions. These will be designed to provide new information for the public and research community, including historians and social scientists, as well as for student training and education at the K-12, undergraduate, and graduate levels (five graduate and ten undergraduate students will receive specific training under the grant). The first natural history survey of Michigan from the 1830s is particularly significant because it is the only one that documents the original pre-settlement conditions of parts of the state, but its composition has not been systematically assessed. Overall, the project will significantly broaden the outreach, educational and research, value of its combined natural history collections by making them more accessible and interconnected through a common collections management system. It will foster much greater collaboration among the museum units on campus and will allow the university to produce integrated search results across all of its collections. For additional information about the University of Michigan natural history museums and their collections, consult the museum websites at http://herbarium.lsa.umich.edu/, http://www.lsa.umich.edu/ummz/, and http://www.lsa.umich.edu/paleontology/.