Digitization PEN: Field Museum of Natural History Partnership with the Southwest Collection of Arthropods Network

节肢动物在塑造美国西南部和世界各地的生态系统方面发挥着重要作用。博物馆和大学的节肢动物研究收藏包含了研究这些角色的关键数据。采集数据可用于生态学研究和生产鉴定工具，但对许多采集来说，这些数据隐藏在标本标签和实地记录中。西南节肢动物收集网络（SCAN）的建立是为了提高这些收集的可及性，其目标是捕获75万个节肢动物标本标签上的数据，使研究人员能够探索节肢动物如何塑造西南生态系统，以及它们如何应对自然和人为变化。这项授予菲尔德博物馆的现有网络合作伙伴（PEN）奖将通过添加来自SCAN目标分类群的超过100,000个甲虫标本的标签数据来增强SCAN，这些标本代表860个物种。除了这些数据的科学价值将为SCAN做出贡献之外，该项目还将利用菲尔德博物馆在芝加哥社区的公共宣传和地位方面的强大历史，支持当地和全球范围内的非正式教育机会，重点关注地栖节肢动物。这个PEN项目将提供菲尔德博物馆拥有大量历史藏品的四个甲虫科的生态、分布和形态数据：暗甲虫（拟甲科）、爱蚁甲虫（拟甲科）、羽翼甲虫（拟甲科）和铁甲甲虫（拟甲科）。该项目将通过解决关键的分类和分布差距来增强SCAN数据集。菲尔德博物馆收藏了6万件甲虫标本，这一物种的进化史与蚂蚁（另一个目标分类群）密切相关，是世界上最全面、研究最深入的甲虫收藏。它有丰富的模式标本（120个主要类型），相关的野外笔记，生态数据和未描述的分类群，但这些数据仍然没有数字可用。项目团队将实施一个工作流程，包括1)对100,000个选定标本的所有标签进行成像和转录数据，并将这些数据添加到Field Museum的EMu数据库中；2)对目标分类群的所有北美主要类型进行成像；3)在Field Museum Insect collection数据库中对所有西南采集地点进行地理参考；4)将这些数据通过SCAN门户网站、GBIF和iDigBio （idigbio.org）数据门户提供。5)加强菲尔德博物馆目前的数字化工作流程，充分利用实习生和志愿者的贡献，并通过建立一支训练有素的数字化志愿者和实习生团队来维持数字化。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Arthropods play a major role in shaping the ecosystems of the southwestern United States and around the world. Arthropod research collections housed in museums and universities contain key data for studying these roles. Collections data can be used in ecological studies and to produce identification tools, but for many collections these data are hidden away on specimen labels and in field notes. The Southwest Collection of Arthropods Network (SCAN) was established to improve accessibility of collections like these, with a goal to capturing the data written on 750,000 arthropod specimen labels, allowing researchers to explore how arthropods shape the ecosystems of the southwest and how they respond natural and anthropogenic change. This Partner to Existing Networks (PEN) award to the Field Museum will enhance SCAN through the addition of label data from over 100,000 beetle specimens of SCAN target taxa, representing 860 species. Beyond the scientific value of the data will contributed to SCAN, this project will take advantage of the Field Museum's strong history in public outreach and status in the Chicago community to support informal educational opportunities focused on ground-dwelling arthropods both locally and across the globe.This PEN project will make available the ecological, distributional, and morphological data from four beetle families for which the Field Museum has large, historical holdings: The darkling beetles (Tenebrionidae), the ant loving beetles (Pselaphinae), the feather-wing beetles (Ptiliidae) and the ironclad beetles (Zopheridae). The project will enhance the SCAN dataset by addressing critical taxonomic and distributional gaps. The Field Museum's collection of 60,000 Pselaphinae specimens, a group whose evolutionary history is deeply intertwined the ants (another target taxon), is the most comprehensive and heavily-researched collection of these beetles in the world. It is rich with type specimens (120 primary types), associated field notes, ecological data, and undescribed taxa, yet these data are still not digitally available. The project team will implement a workflow that involves 1) imaging and transcribing data from all labels on 100,000 selected specimens and adding the data added to the Field Museum's EMu database, 2) imaging all North American primary types for target taxa, 3) georeferencing all southwestern collection localities in the Field Museum Insect Collection database, 4) making these data available through the SCAN portal, GBIF, and iDigBio (idigbio.org) data portals, and 5) augmenting current digitization workflows at the Field Museum to leverage the intern and volunteer contributions and sustain digitization through establishment of a highly trained team of digitization volunteers and interns.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.