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。博物馆和大学收藏的节肢动物研究藏品包含研究这些角色的关键数据。收藏品数据可用于生态研究和制作鉴定工具，但对许多收藏品来说，这些数据隐藏在标本标签和实地笔记中。节肢动物西南采集网络(SCAN)的建立是为了提高此类采集的可及性，目的是捕捉写在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部的生态系统，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)奖将通过添加来自扫描目标分类群的100,000多个甲虫标本的标签数据来增强扫描，代表860个物种。除了数据将有助于扫描的科学价值外，该项目还将利用菲尔德博物馆在公共宣传方面的强大历史和在芝加哥社区的地位，支持专注于当地和全球地面节肢动物的非正式教育机会。该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家族的生态、分布和形态数据：黑暗甲虫(拟步甲科)、蚂蚁爱甲虫(Pselapinae)、羽翼甲虫(Ptilidae)和铁衣甲虫(Zopheridae)。该项目将通过解决关键的分类和分布差距来增强扫描数据集。菲尔德博物馆收藏了60,000个Pselphinae标本，这是一组进化历史与蚂蚁(另一个目标分类群)紧密交织在一起的标本，是世界上对这些甲虫最全面、最认真研究的标本收藏。它有丰富的模式标本(120个主要模式)，相关的野外笔记，生态数据，和未描述的分类群，但这些数据仍然不是数字可用的。项目组将实施一个工作流程，包括1)对100,000个选定标本上所有标签的数据进行成像和转录，并将数据添加到野外博物馆的EMU数据库，2)为目标分类群对北美所有主要类型进行成像，3)在野外博物馆昆虫收藏数据库中对所有西南部采集地点进行地理参考，4)通过扫描门户网站、GBIF和iDigBio(idigBio.org)数据门户网站提供这些数据，以及5)加强现场博物馆当前的数字化工作流程，以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NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.