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

自然历史收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、现在和拥有的物种的多样性，这些物种对科学来说是新的。这些收藏品对生物体的分类，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。昆虫学收藏特别重要，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100多万种昆虫。昆虫收藏只能通过馆长和收藏经理的专业知识和经验来组织和维护，历史上，这些知识和经验是从一个馆长或收藏经理直接传递给下一个馆长或收藏经理的，因为没有正式的计划以更广泛、更全面的方式做到这一点。这种代际知识传递在中小型收藏中尤为突出，约占美国所有昆虫收藏的70%。尽管它们的规模很大，但这些收藏往往非常有价值，因为它们具有强烈的区域、生态或地理焦点。目前，还没有昆虫收藏品管理方面的培训方案，这表明迫切需要制定一个针对中小型收藏品最佳管理做法的综合方案。这样的项目还将为不同职业阶段和不同规模机构的馆藏经理提供一个亟需的网络机会，以互动和分享他们的经验和知识。该奖项支持由昆虫学藏品网络(ECN)和美国昆虫学会(ESA)系统学、进化和生物多样性(SysEB)分部共同主办的首届昆虫学藏品管理研讨会系列。首届研讨会定于2016年7月18日至20日在华盛顿特区国家自然历史博物馆举行，此后每年继续举办。在为期三天的研讨会期间，学员将接受昆虫学收藏品管理主题的实践培训，包括收藏品管理政策、标本处理、馆藏、储存、保护等。该项目将鼓励藏品管理人员和与较小藏品有关的学生参与，但用于培训和藏品发展的资源较为有限。通过提供专业发展机会，培养一支技能更高、技术水平更高的劳动力队伍，这一研讨会将特别帮助人数最多、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、拉丁裔、非裔美国人和美洲原住民。本次研讨会的结果将在欧洲理事会网站http://ecnweb.org/default.asp?Action=Show_Workshop上公布，并将于2016年9月23-24日在佛罗里达州奥兰多举行的欧洲理事会年会上公布。

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.