Digital Access to the Field Museum's Neotropical Plant Types Collection

在迈克尔·狄龙博士的指导下，菲尔德博物馆获得了一笔拨款，用于部分支持一项倡议，即对来自新热带地区的23,800种维管植物和13,200种柏林底片进行数据库和成像。植物标本室的标本将被扫描识别为类型；来自原始标签的核心数据将被捕获，清理，地理参考，并自动处理存档存储和网络分发。本项目将在原始文献和修订工作的基础上，通过验证每个标本的类型状态来增加这些数据的价值。数据和图像将存储在博物馆最近收购的KE Software EMu（“电子博物馆”）数据库系统中，并立即在线提供；它们也可以通过博物馆合作伙伴的门户网站访问。将KE Software的门户网站添加到EMu数据库中，将允许博物馆的植物部门增加标本数据的分布，加强与密苏里植物园合作，通过网络提供大量中美洲标本数据的努力。数据和图像将通过dvd传送到拉丁美洲所有主要的植物标本馆。该领域的植物学收藏品是世界上最大的开花植物和隐花植物集合，总计约270万标本，其中约40,000种是类型。其中28000种是新热带开花植物。在物种和种下水平上，类型收集是描述和界定生物的关键因素。要正确评估全球、区域和地方的生物多样性，必须随时获取类型收藏和相应的信息，如原始文献。该项目通过提供在线高质量图像和相应的标签信息来满足科学界的需要和要求，解决了纯粹为了分类学目的而频繁出借有价值的模式标本的不切实际。与模式标本验证相关的数据增加了模式收藏的整体价值。该项目为国际科学界提供了一项重要的服务，特别是在拉丁美洲，那里往往没有可供鉴定的植物群，而那些有植物群的植物群通常也没有照片或插图。将标本数据送回最初采集标本的国家将允许国内研究人员使用这些数据来改进其生物清单和维管植物的分类研究。它还将加强与玻利维亚、哥斯达黎加、危地马拉、厄瓜多尔、墨西哥、秘鲁和其他国家当地机构的合作和积极项目。在野外博物馆，这些项目将包括对人员进行数据库方法、植物分类和模式标本核查方面的培训。该项目将使芝加哥地区的拉美学生有机会与菲尔德博物馆的研究人员合作，利用HiTech拉美实习生的合作计划，提高博物馆网站的质量。

A grant has been awarded to The Field Museum under the direction of Dr. Michael Dillon for partial support of an initiative to database and image 23,800 type collections of vascular plants from the Neotropics and 13,200 Berlin Negatives. Herbarium specimen sheets identified as types will be scanned; core data from original labels will be captured, cleaned, georeferenced, and automatically processed for archival storage and web distribution. The project will add value to these data through verification of the type status of each specimen based on original literature and revisionary works. Data and images will reside in the Museum's recently acquired KE Software EMu ('Electronic Museum') database system and be immediately available online; they will also be made available for access through the portals of Museum collaborators. The addition of KE Software's portal to the EMu database will allow the Museum's Botany Department to increase distribution of specimen data, enhancing an effort to deliver large quantities of Mesoamerican specimen data via the web, in collaboration with the Missouri Botanical Garden. Data and images will be repatriated via DVDs to all major herbaria in Latin America. The Field's Botany collections rank among the world's largest assemblage of flowering plants and cryptogams, totaling about 2.7 million specimens, some 40,000 of which are types. Of this number, 28,000 represent Neotropical flowering plants. Type collections are the critical element in the description and delimitation of organisms at the species and infraspecific levels. Ready access to type collections and corresponding information, such as original literature, is indispensable to correct assessment of global, regional, and local biodiversity. This project addresses the impracticality of frequent loans of valuable type specimens for purely taxonomic purposes by providing online availability of high-quality images and corresponding label information to meet the needs and demands of the scientific community. Data pertinent to the verification of type specimens increase the overall value of a type collection. The project offers an important service to the international scientific community, especially in Latin America, where floras for identification often do not exist and those that do typically are devoid of photos or illustrations.Repatriation of specimen data to the countries where the specimens were originally collected will permit in-country researchers to use these data to improve their biotic inventories and taxonomic studies of the vascular plants. It will also enhance collaborations and active projects with local institutions in Bolivia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, and other countries. At the Field Museum, these projects will include training of personnel in methods for databasing, plant taxonomy, and verification of type specimens. The project will give Chicago-region Latin American students a chance to collaborate with Field Museum researchers to improve the quality of the Museum's web presence by leveraging the collaborative program of HiTech Latin American interns.