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

弗罗斯特昆虫学博物馆是宾夕法尼亚州立大学位于大学公园的旗舰校区昆虫学系内的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，以及一个公共展览和教育空间，每年接待1000名参观者。该项目将把存储系统统一到一个单一的标准上，并将标本转移到更具保护性的存储柜--即使用档案材料建造并适当密封，不受环境因素和博物馆害虫的影响。标本将被成像，其收集的事件数据将输入公众可访问的数字数据库。还将有大量的培训和宣传部分，旨在提高对昆虫重要性的认识。来自不同背景的个人--小学生、本科生、研究生和非专家成年人--将接受博物馆实践和自然历史收藏重要性的教育。外展活动包括为8-14岁儿童举办的“虫子夏令营”、博物馆的见面会、研究生培训、本科生暑期实习、博物馆的公开展品，以及“大昆虫博览会”。博物馆的藏品包括世界上最大、最多样化的吸虱收藏(Anoplura，其中包括重要的医学上重要的虱子)，以及著名的蚜虫(半翅目：蜂科，包括重要的经济害虫)、蜻蜓和蜻蜓(Odonata)、大量寄生黄蜂(膜翅目，包括用于控制食虫的物种)、本地传粉者(包括蜜蜂和蝴蝶)和宾夕法尼亚州昆虫的收藏。尽管该大学在研究中广泛使用这些标本，并对这一资源进行了大量投资，但这些藏品的储存条件很差，从大量不充分的标本案例中可见一斑，而且缺乏一个现代化的、可访问的数据库。该项目建议的活动旨在通过以下方式解决这些问题：用专门建造的档案系统取代所有标本柜，增加存储空间，将载玻片和乙醇保存的标本重新组织到适当的存储中，并建立一个可在网上访问的标本数据库。这些数据将通过InvertNet和iDigBio进一步传播。该数据库为弗罗斯特博物馆的公共数据挖掘和基础研究提供了便利，这些领域包括流行病学、入侵物种生物学、全球气候变化、传粉者减少和昆虫谱系的进化史。欲了解更多信息，请访问弗罗斯特昆虫博物馆官方网站：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.