Critical upgrades and digitization of the UAM Earth Sciences Collection

位于费尔班克斯的阿拉斯加大学博物馆（UAM）地球科学收藏包括6万多件化石标本，其中包括世界上最大的极地恐龙收藏和阿拉斯加第二大的冰河时期哺乳动物收藏。在过去的30年里，这种不可替代的资源的规模增加了两倍，而且许多藏品的安置不当和过度拥挤，获取标本数据的途径受到严重限制。这个由美国国家科学基金会赞助的项目将为该收藏的关键升级提供资金。UAM将购买急需的移动存储架，并首次重新整理和妥善安置藏品。重要的是，整个脊椎动物化石收集将以电子数据为基础，进行条形码和拍照。UAM是该地区的主要自然历史博物馆，其面积相当于美国本土面积的五分之一。在这个项目中捕获的标本数据将通过互联网免费提供给公众、研究人员和土地管理者，使其成为美国记录最好的古生物学收藏品之一。该项目将加强阿拉斯加的科学研究，为研究生和本科生提供有价值的培训和就业机会，并有助于向UAM每年9万名游客介绍阿拉斯加的化石。

The University of Alaska Museum (UAM) Earth Sciences Collection in Fairbanks includes over 60,000 fossil specimens, including the largest collection of polar dinosaurs in the world and the second largest collection of Ice Age mammals from Alaska. This irreplaceable resource has tripled in size in the last 30 years, and much of the collection is improperly housed and overcrowded, and access to specimen data is severely limited. This NSF-sponsored project will provide funding for critical upgrades to the collection. UAM will purchase much-needed mobile storage shelving and reorganize and properly house the collection for the first time. Importantly, the entire fossil vertebrate collection will be electronically data-based, bar-coded, and photographed. UAM is the major natural history museum for a region encompassing an area one-fifth the size of the contiguous United States. The specimen data captured during this project will be made freely accessible to the public, researchers, and land managers via the Internet, making it one of the best-documented paleontology collections in the nation. This project will enhance scientific research in Alaska, provide valuable training and employment for graduate and undergraduate science students and help to spotlight Alaskan fossils to UAM's 90,000 annual visitors.