University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology invertebrate fossils: Databasing and web-accessibility

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。本提案的主要目标是为密歇根大学古生物博物馆（UMMP-IC）编目的无脊椎动物化石实现分类、地理和地层信息的计算机化。UMMP-IC长期以来一直是北美最重要的藏品之一（排名第七）。可搜索的数据库将在网上提供，并辅以标本的数字图像，使科学界能够有效地访问。该奖项增加了最近完成的藏品转移到5000平方英尺的新橱柜。经过全面翻新，有气候控制，安全的新设施。这次冒险的成功将对UMMP-IC产生变革性的影响，使其回到古生物学活跃研究的前沿，向分类学家、系统学家、古生态学家和古生物学家的听众释放其巨大的潜在古生物学数据存储。在线数据库（http://www.paleontology.lsa.umich.edu/UMMP_IC/）将向公众开放，越来越多的人对化石、生命史和环境感兴趣。至关重要的是，该数据库最终将与同行博物馆的其他藏品联系起来，促进向在线多藏品搜索的过渡。该项目将使UMMP加强其在培养古生物学和博物馆科学学生方面的突出作用，通过整合大量实用数据库和策展技能的发展。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).The primary goal of this proposal is to computerize taxonomic, geographic, and stratigraphic information for catalogued invertebrate fossils at the University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology (UMMP-IC). The UMMP-IC has long ranked among the most important collections in North America (ranked 7th). The searchable database will be available online and supplemented with digital images of specimens, allowing the scientific community efficient access. The award adds to a recently completed move of collections to new cabinets in a 5000 sq. ft extensively renovated, climate-controlled, secure new facility. Success in this venture will have a transformative effect on UMMP-IC, returning it to the forefront of active research in paleontology, releasing its enormous store of latent paleontological data to an audience of taxonomists, systematists, paleoecologists and paleobiologists. The online database (http://www.paleontology.lsa.umich.edu/UMMP_IC/) will be available to the general public, a growing fraction of who are interested in fossils, the history of life and environment. Critically, the database will be eventually linked with other collections in peer museums, facilitating the transition to online multiple-collection searches. This project will enable the UMMP to strengthen its prominent role in training students in paleontology and museum science by incorporating significant levels of practical database and curatorial skill development.