Securing the collection of University of Montana's Zoological Museum

蒙大拿大学动物博物馆收藏的2万多个生物标本将被重新安置到一座新建的建筑中，在那里，博物馆级的金属橱柜将取代过去一个世纪积累的不断老化的木质和金属橱柜。更大的空间、更高效的存储和更安全的橱柜将确保北落基山脉最大的历史和现代哺乳动物和鸟类收藏之一的保存和未来的增长。这一举措将与数据库的更新相结合，使其与收集数据的国际标准兼容。因此，公众人士将可广泛查阅该馆所有标本的资料。博物馆广泛的地区鸟类和哺乳动物收藏为现代物种分布和遗传对景观变化的反应提供了独特的历史视角。这些大量藏品的搬迁和数字化将为高中生和本科生提供生物学和博物馆科学方面的培训和发现机会，包括为来自蒙大拿州部落学院的四名学生提供暑期实习。该项目将为蒙大拿州大学动物博物馆(UMZM)2万多件现代脊椎动物标本的收藏提供急需的策展升级。作为蒙大拿州最大的现代陆地脊椎动物标本收藏，也是落基山脉北部最大的脊椎动物标本收藏之一，UMZM为研究、正规教育和推广提供了重要的材料来源。目前蒙大拿大学的教职员工正在积极地利用这些收藏来研究不同的生物问题，然而，更广泛的可及性、正在进行的标本保存和未来的增长的潜力受到现有基础设施的严重限制。保护藏品将通过将所有研究标本转移到档案空间的新橱柜中进行。这一举措还将使可用于处理标本的面积增加四倍。在密歇根大学积极将藏品纳入本科教学和研究的基础上，该项目将通过以季节性主题为中心的UMZM藏品的新展览，培训K12教师以帮助将生物多样性科学纳入他们的课程，以及在UMZM指导来自地区部落学院的美洲原住民学生的实习，从而增加对当地公众的接触。该项目的活动将记录在UMZM的新网站(hs.umt.edu/UMZM)上。新的数据库将首次允许学术研究人员和其他研究人员通过VertNet和Arctos以网络方式访问UMZM收藏的标本数据。这些数据将与iDigBio(idigBio.org)共享，并可通过iDigBio访问。

More than 20,000 biological specimens housed at the University of Montana Zoological Museum will be relocated to a newly constructed building where museum grade metal cabinetry will replace deteriorating wood-and-metal cabinets accumulated over the past century. The larger space, more efficient storage and more secure cabinetry will ensure the preservation and future growth of one of the largest collections of historical and modern mammals and birds in the Northern Rockies. The move will be combined with an update to the database, making it compatible with international standards for collections data. Thus, information from all specimens held by the Museum will become broadly accessible to the general public. The Museum's extensive regional collection of birds and mammals provides a unique historical perspective on modern species distributions and genetic responses to landscape changes. The relocation and digitization of this substantial collection will provide training and discovery opportunities in biology and museum science for high school and undergraduate students, including summer internships for four students from Montana tribal colleges.The project will provide urgently needed curatorial upgrades to the collection of more than 20,000 specimens of modern-day vertebrates at the University of Montana Zoological Museum (UMZM). As the largest collection of modern land vertebrate specimens from Montana, and among the largest such vertebrate collections in the northern Rocky Mountains, the UMZM provides an important source of materials for research, formal education, and outreach. Current University of Montana faculty are actively using the collections to study diverse questions biological questions, however, the potential for broader accessibility, ongoing specimen preservation, and future growth is severely limited by current infrastructure. Securing the collection will occur via transfer of all research specimens to new cabinets in an archival space. This move will also result in a fourfold increase of the area available to work with the specimens. Building on UM's active incorporation of the collections into undergraduate teaching and research, this project will increase outreach to the local public by new exhibits of UMZM collections centered on seasonal themes, training of K12 teachers to help incorporate biodiversity science into their curricula, and mentored internships at the UMZM of Native American students from regional tribal colleges. The project's activities will be documented at the UMZM's new website (hs.umt.edu/UMZM). The new database will, for the first time, allow web-based access to specimen data from the UMZM collections for academic and other researchers via VertNet and Arctos. These data will be shared with and made accessible with iDigBio (idigbio.org).