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旗舰校区昆虫学系的一个活跃的研究机构。该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1000名游客。该项目将把存储系统统一为一个标准，并将标本转移到更具保护性的存储柜中，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。将对标本进行成像，并将收集到的事件数据输入一个可公开访问的数字数据库。还将有大量的培训和外联内容，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、研究生和非专业人士——将接受博物馆实践和自然历史收藏重要性方面的教育。外展活动包括针对8-14岁儿童的“昆虫营”、博物馆的馆长见面会、研究生培训、本科生暑期实习、博物馆的公开展览和“大昆虫展”。该博物馆的藏品包括世界上最大、最多样化的吸虱（Anoplura，包括医学上重要的虱子），以及著名的蚜虫（半翅目：蚜虫科，包括经济上重要的害虫）、蜻蜓和豆娘（Odonata）、大量的寄生蜂（膜翅目，包括用于控制瘟疫昆虫的物种）、本地传粉昆虫（包括蜜蜂和蝴蝶）和宾夕法尼亚昆虫。尽管大学在研究中广泛使用了这些藏品，并对这些资源进行了大量投资，但这些藏品的储存条件很差，这一点从大量不足的标本箱和缺乏现代化的、可访问的数据库可以看出。本项目提出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的标本柜，增加存储空间，将幻灯片和乙醇保存的标本重新组织到适当的存储中，并建立一个可访问网络的标本数据库。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、传粉媒介减少和昆虫谱系的进化史。更多信息可以在弗罗斯特昆虫学博物馆的官方网站上找到：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.