CSBR: Natural History: Critical infrastructure and digitization upgrades for the Frost Entomological Museum (PSUC) at Penn State

弗罗斯特昆虫博物馆是宾夕法尼亚州立大学大学公园旗舰校区昆虫学系内一个活跃的研究机构。博物馆收藏了大量节肢动物标本，估计有近200万个标本，还有一个公共展览和教育空间，每年接待1,000名游客。该项目将把存储系统统一到一个标准上，并将标本转移到更具保护性的存储柜中-也就是说，使用档案材料建造，并适当密封，免受环境因素和博物馆害虫的影响。将对样本进行成像，并将其收集的事件数据输入可公开访问的数字数据库。还将有大量的培训和外联活动，旨在提高对昆虫重要性的认识。来自广泛背景的个人-小学生，本科生，格拉德生和非专家成年人-将接受博物馆实践和自然历史收藏的重要性的教育。外展活动包括为8-14岁的孩子举办的“虫虫夏令营”、博物馆馆长见面会、研究生培训、本科生暑期实习、博物馆的公开展览和“昆虫博览会”。博物馆的藏品包括最大、最多样化的吸虱收藏品之一（Anoplura，其中包括医学上重要的虱子）在世界上，以及著名的蚜虫收藏（半翅目：蚜虫科，包括经济上重要的害虫），蜻蜓和豆娘（蜻蜓目），大量的寄生蜂（Hyattera，包括用于控制有害昆虫的物种）、本地传粉者（包括蜜蜂和蝴蝶）和宾夕法尼亚昆虫。尽管他们在研究中的广泛使用和大学在这一资源的大量投资，收集遭受恶劣的储存条件，从丰富的标本情况下，以及缺乏一个现代化的，可访问的数据库不足明显。本项目中提出的活动旨在通过以下方式解决这些问题：用专用存档系统替换所有标本柜，增加存储空间，将载玻片固定和乙醇保存的标本重新组织到适当的存储中，并建立可通过网络访问的标本数据库。这些数据将通过InvertNet和iDigBio进一步传播。该数据库利用弗罗斯特博物馆的数据进行公共数据挖掘和基础研究，如流行病学，入侵物种生物学，全球气候变化，传粉媒介下降和昆虫谱系的进化史。更多信息可在弗罗斯特昆虫博物馆官方网站上找到：http://ento.psu.edu/facilities/frost。

The Frost Entomological Museum is an active research institution within the Department of Entomology at Penn State's flagship campus in University Park. The Museum houses a large collection of arthropods, estimated at almost 2 million specimens, and a public exhibition and educational space that receives 1,000 visitors per year. This project will unify the storage system onto a single standard, and move specimens to storage cabinets that are more protective - that is, built using archival materials and properly sealed from environmental elements and museum pests. Specimens will be imaged and their collected event data entered into a publically-accessible digital database. There will also be substantial training and outreach components aimed at raising awareness of the importance of insects. Individuals from a broad array of backgrounds - grade school students, undergrads, grad students, and non-expert adults - will be educated in museum practices and the importance of natural history collections. Outreach activities include 'Bug Camp' for kids aged 8-14, meet-the-curator events at the museum, graduate student training, summer internships for undergraduates, public exhibits at the museum, and the 'Great Insect Fair'.The museum's holdings include one of the largest, most diverse collections of sucking lice (Anoplura, which includes the medically important lice) in the world, alongside renown collections of aphids (Hemiptera: Aphididae, including economically important pests), dragonflies and damselflies (Odonata), substantial collections of parasitic wasps (Hymenoptera, which includes species used to control pestiferous insects), native pollinators (including bees and butterflies), and Pennsylvania insects. Despite their extensive use in research and substantial investment in this resource by the University, the collection suffers from poor storage conditions, evident from an abundance of inadequate specimen cases, and the absence of a modern, accessible database. The activities proposed in this project are designed to remedy these problems by: replacing all specimen cabinets with a purpose-built archival system, increasing storage space, reorganizing the slide-mounted and ethanol-preserved specimens into appropriate storage, and setting up a Web-accessible specimen database. The data will be further disseminated through InvertNet and iDigBio. The database avails Frost Museum data for public data mining and fundamental research in areas such as epidemiology, invasive species biology, global climate change, pollinator declines, and the evolutionary history of insect lineages. More information can be found at the official Frost Entomological Museum website: http://ento.psu.edu/facilities/frost.