Archiving the History of Life: High-Density Storage to Solve Space Needs for an Invertebrate Paleontology Research and Teaching Collection

堪萨斯大学自然历史博物馆和生物多样性研究中心已获得一笔赠款，用于重新安置无脊椎动物化石和微化石收藏。这些化石收集有助于为我们了解过去的生活提供主要基础，并在石油储量、煤炭和矿产资源的勘探中有用。这些藏品是堪萨斯大学古生物学课程的组成部分。它由来自世界各地的约850,000个标本组成，其中包括过去120年来研究的6,500多个模式或图形标本。然而，没有可用的空间来扩大收藏。为了缓解拥挤，并为扩大藏品提供空间，我们将安装最先进的高密度存储系统。新的储存系统将包括手动、移动式压实机，可容纳现有的箱子，并为新的箱子提供空间，最终大大扩大该司的收集能力。这一具有成本效益的收藏品改进项目将缓解收藏品的严重拥挤，并解决由这种拥挤引起的严重问题。缓解拥挤将使我们能够扩大我们的藏品，适当地存放我们现在拥有的有价值的研究和教学藏品，并采用与我们教学、研究和公共服务的长期目标相一致的孤儿藏品。实现这些目标将使我们能够发展我们收藏的广度和深度，从而增强它们对研究、教育和公共服务的全球影响。

A grant has been awarded to The Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Research Center at the University of Kansas for rehousing the Invertebrate fossils and microfossil collections. These fossil collections help to provide the principal basis for our understanding of past life and are useful in the exploration for petroleum reserves, coal, and mineral resources. The collection is integral to the program in paleontology at the University of Kansas. It consists of some 850,000 specimens from all parts of the world including more than 6,500 type or figured specimens that have been studied during the past 120 years. No space is available, however, to expand the collection. To alleviate crowding and provide space for expanding the collections, we will install a state-of-the-art, high-density storage system. The new storage system will comprise manual, mobile compactors that accommodate the existing cases and provide space for new storage cases, ultimately significantly expanding the division's collection capacity. This cost-effective, collection-improvement project will alleviate critical crowding of the collection and solve serious problems that stem from that crowding. Alleviating crowding will enable us to expand our collections, to house properly valuable research and teaching collections now in our possession, and to adopt orphaned collections that mesh with our long-term goals of teaching, research, and public service. Achieving these goals will enable us to develop both the breadth and depth of our collections, thereby enhancing their global impact on research, education, and public service.