CSBR: Natural History: Improvement of the Mississippi Entomological Museum for organization of collection and digitization of specimen data

密西西比州立大学的密西西比昆虫博物馆拥有来自美国所有50个州和其他48个国家的160多万份研究标本。 这一研究资源在记录南部沿海平原的昆虫多样性方面尤其重要，包括许多危险的栖息地。 该集合还拥有疾病媒介以及农业和林业害虫的标本，这些标本在过去的120年里在密西西比被记录在案，这些标本对于评估它们过去，现在和未来的分布非常重要。 该博物馆的鉴定中心提供对威胁13个州的食物、纤维和森林生物安全的入侵物种的早期检测。 从这些活动中获得的标本在美国的生物收藏中形成了独特的馆藏，其中包括蚂蚁和蚱蜢的主要聚集地。 超过100种新的科学物种已被描述的基础上保存在收集与更多的标本仍有待描述。 在过去的五年中，该博物馆接待了来自25个州和其他五个国家的42个机构的112名访问研究人员。 同时，博物馆有一个积极的教育和宣传方案，为小学生设计课程，并在公共活动中提供展览和信息分发。 在过去的五年中，由于实地考察、捐赠、来自其他州的陷阱样本以及其他机构收藏的收购，收藏品的年增长率接近30%。 目前，博物馆已满负荷，走廊和办公室的标本柜限制了进入，没有空间供未来增加的标本。 第一个是通过购买一个压缩机系统来扩大研究标本的储存空间，该系统将包括在轨道上的可移动托架，用于固定橱柜。 该压实机系统将提供估计30%的能力增加。 第二个目标是解决目前在多用途建筑物中储存易燃防腐剂的危险，其中包括学生教室。 近40万个策划标本和大量的散装样品目前储存在乙醇中，并保存在克莱莱尔昆虫学大楼的各个房间和走廊（一些邻近教室）。 由于防腐剂的挥发性，酒精中的样本浓度存在安全隐患。 购置一个位于大楼外的步入式冷藏装置，将减轻目前在大楼内用乙醇储存标本的危险。 第三个目标将是蚂蚁和蚱蜢样本标签数据的数字化。 蚂蚁和蚱蜢都对公众具有生态和经济意义，特别是入侵物种蚂蚁。 该博物馆是美国东部第三大昆虫收藏馆，但其他方面目前无法获得标本数据。 数字化工作将通过与iDigBio（iDigBio.org）和全球生物多样性信息设施（GBIF.org）等其他全球资源的数据共享，使研究人员和公众能够获得这些数据。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

The Mississippi Entomological Museum at Mississippi State University holds more than 1.6 million research specimens from all 50 states of the U.S. and 48 other countries. This research resource is especially important in documenting the insect diversity of the southern Coastal Plain, including many imperiled habitats. The collection also holds specimens of disease vectors as well as agricultural and forestry pests that have been documented in Mississippi for the past 120 years, and these specimens are important for evaluating their past, current, and future distributions. The museum's identification center provides early detection of invasive species that threaten the biosecurity of food, fiber, and forests in 13 states. The acquisition of specimens from these activities has resulted in unique holdings among biological collections in the U.S., and these include major collections of ants and grasshoppers. More than 100 species new to science have been described based on specimens held in the collection with many more still to be described. During the past five years, the museum has hosted 112 visiting researchers from 42 institutions in 25 states and five other countries. Concurrently, the museum has an active education and outreach program with curricula designed for elementary students and table events involving displays and informative hand-outs provided at public events. The annual growth of collection holdings during the past five years has approached 30% because of fieldwork, donations, trap samples from other states, and acquisition of other institutional collections. At present the museum is over full capacity, with cabinets holding specimens limiting access in hallways and offices, and no space is available for future additions of specimens.This project has three objectives. The first is to expand storage space for research specimens by acquisition of a compactor system that will include moveable carriages on rails that hold cabinets. This compactor system will provide an estimated 30% increase in capacity. The second objective is to resolve the current hazards of storage of flammable preservatives in a multi-use building that includes classrooms for students. Almost 400,000 curated specimens and a large number of bulk samples are currently stored in ethanol and held in various rooms and hallways (some adjacent to classrooms) of the Clay Lyle Entomology Building. This concentration of specimens in alcohol has presented a safety hazard because the volatility of the preservative. The acquisition of a walk-in refrigerated unit, located outside the building, would alleviate the current hazards of storing specimens in ethanol in the building. The third objective will be the digitization of specimen label data for ants and grasshoppers. Both ants and grasshoppers have ecological and economic significance to the public, especially for invasive species of ants. The museum has the third largest collections of both groups of insects in eastern U.S., but specimen data are currently unavailable to others. The digitization effort will make these data available to researchers and the public through data sharing with iDigBio (iDigBio.org) and other global resources such as the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF.org).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.