CSBR:Natural History: Critical infrastructure upgrades and expanded digital access to Non-vertebrate Paleontology Collections at the University of Texas at Austin

位于奥斯汀的德克萨斯大学（UT）获得了一项奖励，用于基础设施升级和支持扩展对非脊椎动物古生物学收藏的数字访问。这笔资金将缓解位于UT泡菜研究园区的收藏空间的压力。从主校区转移标本已使当前存储的容量达到临界水平，严重阻碍了访问和标本检索。直接用户访问对于确保正在进行和未来的研究、教育和公众宣传能够轻松获得材料至关重要。这个项目将解决其中的许多问题。它将促进陈列柜的升级、标本的安全，并扩大对不可替代的化石收藏的数字化访问，特别是那些目前没有气候控制的化石收藏。标本包括罕见的历史材料，灭绝或灭绝的物种，现在无法到达的地方的收藏品，德克萨斯州地质测绘的化石，论文和论文样本，古植物学收藏品，独特的全新世海洋，陆地蜗牛和贻贝收藏品，基因型软体动物收藏品和一些孤儿收藏品。新的档案柜将提供更有效的空间利用，在额外资金允许的情况下，这是向完全紧凑的气候控制空间发展的重要一步。机柜的物理结构与气候窗帘相结合，可以防止害虫和污染的污染，缓冲温度和湿度的波动，提高安全性。通过创新的网络和移动应用程序，公共利益和教育将通过各种社交媒体得到扩展。在项目实施期间，大多数标本将经过冷冻/解冻循环，以杀死昆虫和幼虫，然后再转移到新的柜子。所有转帐活动将通过地理信息系统（GIS）与数据库（具体来说是6）和网络界面进行跟踪；在项目期间，通过利用整个抽屉的图像，收集将保持数字化访问，如果没有之前部署的有效GIS和成像作为正在进行的库存过程的一部分，这是不可能实现的。该项目延续了一项机构战略，以保存存储库中的重要藏品，并为合作研究提供高分辨率的2-D和现在的3-D数字替代品。所有标本将在全抽屉环境下成像，并将单个标本与其历史标签一起捕获，作为附加资源。改进存储库地图、数据库和图像之间的网络连接将使潜在的教学样本和研究资源能够远程访问。虚拟标本和相关数据可供查询和下载，保留了在各种背景下探索这些非现场收藏的灵活性，包括分类学，地质学和全球古地理。将为数据的空间和时间分析提供经板块构造运动校正的局部坐标。该项目产生的所有数据将与iDigBio （https://www.idigbio.org/）和全球生物多样性信息设施（GBIF）共享，确保研究人员和公众可以访问。

An award is made to the University of Texas (UT) at Austin for infrastructure upgrades and support for expanded digital access to the Non-vertebrate Paleontology Collections. The funding will alleviate pressure for storage space within this collection located on the Pickle Research Campus of UT. Transfer of specimens from the main campus has stressed the capacity of current storage to critical levels that significantly hinder access and specimen retrieval. Direct user access is vital to ensure that materials remain easily available for on-going and future research, education, and public outreach. This project will address many of these issues. It will facilitate cabinet upgrades, specimen security, and expanded digital access to irreplaceable fossil collections, especially those currently housed without climate control. Specimens include rare historic material, extirpated or extinct species, collections from now inaccessible localities, fossils from the geologic mapping of Texas, thesis and dissertation samples, paleobotanical collections, a unique Holocene marine, land snail and mussel collection, a genotypic mollusc collection, and several orphaned collections. New archival cabinets will provide more efficient space usage, and are a vital step in the progression to fully compacted climate-controlled space when additional funding permits. The physical structure of the cabinets combined with climate curtaining will prevent contamination by pests and pollution, buffer swings in temperature and humidity, and improve security. Public interest and education, furthered through innovative web and mobile applications, will be expanded through a variety of social media. During the project implementation, most specimens will be passed through a freeze/thaw cycle to kill insects and larvae prior to their transfer to new cabinets. All transfer activity will be tracked via a linked geographic information system (GIS) to a database (Specify6) and web interface; collections will remain digitally accessible during the project by leveraging whole-drawer imagery, which could not be achieved without the previous deployments of an effective GIS and imaging as part of the ongoing inventory process. The project continues an institutional strategy to conserve important collections in the repository and to make high resolution 2-D, and now 3-D, digital surrogates available for collaborative research. All specimens will be imaged in full-drawer context, and individual specimens captured with their historic labels as an added resource. Refinement of the web connectivity between repository map, database, and images will enable remote access for potential teaching specimens and research resources. Virtual specimens and related data will be available for query and download, retaining flexibility to explore these off-site collections in a variety of contexts, including taxonomy, geology, and global paleogeography. Locality coordinates, corrected for plate tectonic movement, will be provided for both spatial and temporal analysis of data. All data resulting from this project will be shared with iDigBio (https://www.idigbio.org/) and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), ensuring accessibility to researchers and the public.