CSBR: Natural History: Consolidating, modernizing and harnessing the full potential of two herbaria collections at New Mexico State University

新墨西哥州有五个主要的植物博物馆或草药馆，其中总共有30万个干燥的压榨植物标本，这些标本是用于促进教育、研究和公众参与的宝贵科学资源。这些独特的标本中有超过30%(或12万)保存在新墨西哥州州立大学(NMSU)的两个草本馆中，其中一个是该州最古老的草本馆。总的来说，NMSU草本植物是新墨西哥州南部、邻近各州和墨西哥北部的主要植物参考资源。该项目的目标是巩固NMSU药草，使其藏品数据管理基础设施现代化，并更新其管理程序，最终将藏品长期保存，同时扩大教育、研究和公众使用的数据获取范围。通过一个由植物学研究人员和当地科学教育工作者组成的多学科团队，将实施一系列学术和外展倡议，以提高不同人口群体对植物科学的认识。在NMSU，一个官方的拉美裔服务机构(HSI)，研究人员将利用旨在护理、保护和使用标本馆标本及其相关数据的实践经验，继续招募和参与学生。所学技能将提高STEM领域的继续教育和培训机会(例如，研究生院)的参与率，同时增加下游的就业前景。通过与当地科学教育非营利组织的合作，该项目将开发全面的植物学推广材料，以提高新墨西哥州南部服务不足的西班牙裔地区至少1,500名K-12学生对自然历史收藏、植物生物学和生物多样性以及生物地理学的认识和兴趣。活动和预期结果包括：1)标本馆标本的实物保存、管理和整合到统一的在线数字标本馆(例如，所有标本都已数据库、条形码和图像处理)，2)将目前不安全的、不同的植物标本数据库更新为一个单一的现代自然历史采集管理系统，3)从积压的重要未整理标本中获取标本数据，4)为当地K-12学生开发全面的植物学推广和教育工具包，5)培训本科研究助理，6)实施专业研讨会和众包在线活动，所有这些都是专门为各种利益相关者(例如，通过NMSU博物馆研究研究生证书的学生、校园其他自然历史收藏品的策展人、土地经理和所有者、研究人员和公民科学家)量身定做的。该项目在整个校园和该地区的合作性质利用了高效和令人兴奋的方向上的知识和专业知识，创造了新的研究和推广机会，利用这些重要的植物标本收藏及其宝贵和独特的生物多样性信息。标本数据将与iDigBio(idigBio.org)共享并通过iDigBio.org提供。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

New Mexico has five major plant museums or herbaria, which contain a combined 300,000 specimens of dried, pressed plants that are invaluable scientific resources used to promote education, research and public engagement. More than 30% (or 120,000) of these unique specimens are housed in two herbaria at the New Mexico State University (NMSU), one of which is the State's oldest herbarium. Together the NMSU herbaria represent the premier plant reference resource for the southern half of New Mexico, adjacent states, and northern Mexico. The goals of the project are to consolidate the NMSU herbaria, modernize their collections data management infrastructure, and update their management procedures, ultimately preserving the collections long-term, while broadening the data accessibility for education, research, and public use. With a multidisciplinary team of botanical researchers and local science educators, a series of academic and outreach initiatives will be implemented to increase literacy in the plant sciences within different sectors of the population. At NMSU, an official Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI), researchers will pursue the recruitment and engagement of students, using hands-on experiences aimed at the care, protection and use of herbarium specimens and their associated data. Skills learned will improve participation in further education and training opportunities (e.g., graduate school) in STEM fields, while increasing downstream employment prospects. Through partnership with a local scientific education non-profit organization, the project will develop comprehensive botanical outreach materials to increase awareness and interest in natural history collections, plant biology and biodiversity, and biogeography among at least 1,500 K-12 students in an underserved Hispanic region located in southern New Mexico.Activities and expected outcomes include: 1) physical preservation, curation, and integration of herbarium specimens into a unified online digital herbarium (e.g., all specimens databased, barcoded, and imaged), 2) update of currently insecure, disparate databases of the herbaria into a single modern natural history collection management system, 3) acquisition of specimen data from a backlog of important uncurated specimens, 4) development of comprehensive botanical outreach and educational kits for local K-12 students, 5) training of undergraduate research assistants, and 6) implementation of professional workshops, and a crowdsourcing online campaign, all specifically tailored to a wide variety of stakeholders (e.g., students via NMSU's Graduate Certificate in Museum Studies, curators of other natural history collections on campus, land managers and owners, researchers, and citizen scientists). The collaborative nature of the project across campus and the region leverages knowledge and expertise in efficient and exciting directions, creating new research and outreach opportunities that make use of these important herbarium collections and their valuable and unique biodiversity information. Specimen data will be shared with and made available through iDigBio (idigbio.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.