RAPID: Transferring the Southern Illinois University Fluid Vertebrate Collections to the Illinois Natural History Survey

博物馆藏是不可替代的生物信息库，标本数据用于众多领域的基础研究和应用研究。这些领域包括但不限于保护生物学、系统分类学和生物地理学。当自然历史收藏被忽视或遗弃时，大量的生物信息就会丢失或无法为科学界所用。这项快速研究拨款（Rapid）为位于卡本代尔的南伊利诺伊大学（SIUC）流体脊椎动物收藏品的所有权转移和物理转移提供资金，并将其转移到伊利诺斯州香槟市的伊利诺斯州自然历史调查（INHS）。该项目将有助于SIUC收集数据的长期保存。SIUC的流体脊椎动物收藏品包括8万多件和70万件鱼类标本以及6000多件爬行动物和两栖动物标本。这两个收藏都包含了来自美国和世界各地的藏品。从SIUC收到的资料表明，这些藏品将由未经培训的工作人员包装并转移到校外地点。这些藏品将无限期地存放在校外，不受管理或监控。RAPID团队将与一家商业移动公司合作，按照适当的系统发育顺序包装和标记SIUC收藏品，并将其运送到INHS。

Natural history collections are irreplaceable libraries of biological information and specimen-based data is used for basic and applied research in a multitude of fields. These fields include, but are not limited to conservation biology, systematics, and biogeography. When natural history collections are neglected or orphaned, vast amounts of biological information is lost or made unavailable to the scientific community. This Rapid Research Grant (RAPID) provides funding for the transfer of ownership and the physical transfer of the Southern Illinois University at Carbondale (SIUC) fluid vertebrates collections to the Illinois Natural History Survey (INHS) in Champaign, Illinois. The project will assist in the long-term preservation of SIUC collections data. The SIUC fluid vertebrates collections contain over 80,000 lots and 700,000 specimens of fishes and over 6,000 reptile and amphibian specimens. Both collections contain holdings from across the United States and around the world. Information received from SIUC indicated that the collections were to be packed and moved to an off-campus location by untrained staff. The collections were to be stored indefinitely at that off-campus location and not curated or monitored. The RAPID team will work with a commercial moving company to pack and label the SIUC collections in appropriate phylogenetic order and transport them to the INHS.