Towards a Sustainable Management of Insect Collections in the U.S. through the Entomological Collections Management Workshop

博物馆藏是生物标本及其相关信息的储存库。它们记录了地球过去和现在的生物多样性，并保存了对科学来说是新的物种。这些收藏对生物分类作出了宝贵的贡献，更广泛地说，对公共卫生以及自然和农业资源的安全和保障作出了宝贵的贡献。它们也是监测影响人类状况的环境变化的工具。昆虫学的收藏尤其重要，因为昆虫代表了最多样化和最丰富的动物群体。昆虫在我们的日常生活中无处不在，全世界有一百多万种昆虫。昆虫收藏的组织和维护只能通过馆长和收藏经理的专业知识和经验，这些知识和经验历来直接从一位馆长或收藏经理传递给下一位馆长或收藏经理，因为没有正式的程序以更广泛、更全面的方式做到这一点。这种代代相传的知识转移在中小型昆虫收藏中被放大，占美国所有昆虫收藏的70%左右。尽管它们的规模很大，但由于强大的区域、生态或地理焦点，这些收藏通常是非常有价值的。目前，昆虫收藏管理方面的培训项目还不存在，因此，迫切需要制定一套针对中小型昆虫收藏的最佳管理实践的综合性项目。这样的项目还将为不同职业阶段和不同规模机构的馆藏管理人员提供一个急需的交流机会，使他们能够相互交流和分享他们的经验和知识。该奖项支持由昆虫收藏网络（ECN）和美国昆虫学会（ESA）的系统学、进化和生物多样性（SysEB）部门共同主办的第一个昆虫收藏管理系列研讨会。首届研讨会定于2016年7月18日至20日在华盛顿特区的国家自然历史博物馆举行，此后每年继续举行一次。在为期三天的研讨会中，参与者将接受有关昆虫馆藏管理的实践培训，包括馆藏管理政策，标本处理，策展，储存，保护等。该项目将鼓励与培训和馆藏发展资源有限的小型馆藏相关的馆藏管理人员和学生的参与。本次研讨会将特别帮助最大和增长最快的未得到充分服务的学生和早期职业研究人员群体，包括女性、拉丁美洲人、非洲裔美国人和印第安人，提供专业发展机会，培养技能更高、受过技术培训的劳动力。本次研讨会的结果将发布在ECN网站http://ecnweb.org/default.asp?Action=Show_Workshop上，并在2016年9月23日至24日在佛罗里达州奥兰多举行的ECN年会上发表。

Natural history collections are repositories of biological specimens and their associated information. They document Earth's biodiversity in the past, present, and hold species that are new to science. These collections make invaluable contributions to the classification of organisms, and more broadly to public health and safety and security of natural and agricultural resources. They are also tools for monitoring environmental change that affect the human condition. Entomological collections are especially important because insects represent the most diverse and abundant group of animals. Insects are ubiquitous in our everyday lives, with more than a million species worldwide. Insect collections are organized and maintained only through specialized knowledge and experience of curators and collections managers which has historically passed directly from one curator or collection manager to the next since no formal program existed to do this in a broader, more comprehensive fashion. This generational knowledge transfer is especially amplified at small to medium-sized collections, representing ~70% of all insect collections in the U.S. Despite their size, these collections are often extremely valuable because of strong regional, ecological or geographic foci. Currently, there is no training program available in collections management for insect collections, suggesting that an urgent need exists to develop a comprehensive program in best management practices for small to medium-sized collections. Such a program would also provide a much-needed networking opportunity for collections managers at different career stages and at different sized institutions to interact and share their experience and knowledge.This award supports the first Entomological Collections Management Workshop Series, co-sponsored by the Entomological Collections Network (ECN) and the Systematics, Evolution, and Biodiversity (SysEB) Section of the Entomological Society of America (ESA). The inaugural workshop is scheduled to take place at the National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC, on July 18-20, 2016, and continue annually thereafter. During the three-day workshop, participants will receive hands-on training in entomological collections management topics including collections management policies, specimen handling, curation, storage, conservation and more. This project will encourage participation of collections managers and students associated with smaller collections with more limited resources for training and collection development. This workshop will especially help the largest and fastest growing segment of underserved groups of students and early career researchers, including females, Latinos, African Americans, and Native Americans, by providing opportunities for professional development leading to a higher skilled, technically-trained workforce. The results of this workshop will be posted on the ECN website at http://ecnweb.org/default.asp?Action=Show_Workshop and presented at the ECN annual meeting in Orlando, FL on September 23-24, 2016.