CSBR: Natural History: Relocation and critical upgrades to storage, curation, and digital access to the Margaret H. Fulford Herbarium at the University of Cincinnati

该项目将为辛辛那提大学的Margaret H. Fulford标本馆提供关键的升级，包括将藏品转移到一个新的设施。从19世纪20年代到2021年，植物标本室收集了大约118,500个标本，代表了一个地区的维管植物群和世界级的苔藓和苔类植物。植物标本馆还设有玛格丽特·富尔福德博士的个人图书馆，其中包括许多罕见的卷，未出版的野外和实验室笔记本，以及100多本原始的活页夹，其中大部分是未出版的原始技术插图。最近，辛辛那提大学在生物科学系附近的建筑中为植物标本馆翻新了一个新空间。新的植物标本馆空间将极大地提高馆藏的安全性和寿命，并为研究、教育、标本成像和数据库以及持续的公众参与提供额外的能力。两个正在进行的教育项目将得到加强，其中包括一个涉及发育障碍学生的合作标本成像项目，以及一个当地5 -8年级的“STEM女孩”项目。这个为期三年的项目将通过提供压缩系统和现代化的植物标本室柜，支持将植物标本室搬进新的和大规模升级的空间。由于经常漏水和几次灾难性的洪水事件，目前的储存条件非常差，这对大多数橱柜造成了严重的破坏。这些情况使收藏品容易受到水、湿度、虫害等的进一步损害。植物标本室也有一些标本目前储存在开放的架子上，研究人员或公众实际上无法获得。此外，大约12000个苔藓植物标本将被整理、成像并建立数据库。这些由著名苔藓植物专家玛格丽特·富尔福德和杰里·斯奈德收集的标本将通过植物标本馆数据库和iDigBio.org向研究人员和公众开放。最后，富尔福德的大约3500张技术上详细的插图将被扫描并提供给人们。因此，该项目将促进植物标本室的持续承诺，通过创建一个现代化的、用户友好的设施，并通过在线、公众可访问的门户网站分享其宝贵的标本和插图收藏，向世界敞开博物馆的大门。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。

This project will provide critical upgrades to the Margaret H. Fulford Herbarium at the University of Cincinnati, including a move of the collection into a new facility. The herbarium of approximately 118,500 specimens collected in the 1820s through 2021 represents a regional vascular flora and a world-class collection of mosses and liverworts. The herbarium also houses Dr. Margaret Fulford’s personal library, which includes many rare volumes, unpublished field and laboratory notebooks, and over 100 binders of original, mostly unpublished original technical illustrations. Recently, the University of Cincinnati renovated a new space for the herbarium in an adjacent building that houses the Department of Biological Sciences. The new herbarium space will dramatically improve the security and longevity of the collection, and provides additional capacity for research, education, specimen imaging and databasing, and continuing public engagement. Two ongoing education programs will be enhanced and will include a collaborative specimen imaging project involving developmentally disabled students, and a local 5th-8th grade “STEM Girls” program. This three-year project will support moving the herbarium into the new and vastly upgraded space by providing a compactor system and modern herbarium cabinets. The current storage conditions are very poor, resulting from frequent water leaks and several catastrophic flooding events, which have caused severe damage to most of the cabinets. These circumstances have left the collection vulnerable to further damage from water, humidity, insect infestations, etc. The herbarium also has specimens that are currently stored on open shelves and are effectively unavailable to researchers or the general public. In addition, ca. 12,000 bryophyte specimens will be curated, imaged, and databased. These specimens, collected by notable bryophyte specialists Margaret Fulford and Jerry Snider, will be made accessible to researchers and the general public through the herbarium databases and iDigBio.org. Finally, Fulford’s ca. 3,500 technically detailed illustrations will be scanned and made accessible. Thus, this project will facilitate the herbarium’s ongoing commitment to open the museum doors to the world by creating a modern, user-friendly facility and sharing its invaluable collection of specimens and illustrations through online, publicly accessible portals.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.