CSBR: Natural History: Relocation and critical upgrades to storage, curation, and digital access to the Margaret H. Fulford Herbarium at the University of Cincinnati

该项目将为Margaret H.辛辛那提大学的富尔福德植物标本馆，包括将收藏品搬到一个新的设施。 植物标本馆在19世纪20年代至2021年收集了大约118，500个标本，代表了区域维管植物群和世界级的苔藓和地钱收藏。 植物标本馆还设有玛格丽特·富尔福德博士的个人图书馆，其中包括许多罕见的卷，未出版的现场和实验室笔记本，以及100多个原始的，主要是未出版的原始技术插图。 最近，辛辛那提大学在邻近的生物科学系大楼里为植物标本馆翻新了一个新的空间。 新的植物标本馆空间将大大提高藏品的安全性和寿命，并为研究、教育、标本成像和数据库以及持续的公众参与提供额外的能力。 两个正在进行的教育计划将得到加强，将包括一个涉及发育障碍学生的合作标本成像项目，以及一个当地5 - 8年级的“STEM女孩”计划。 这个为期三年的项目将通过提供一个压实系统和现代化的植物标本柜来支持将植物标本馆搬到新的和大幅升级的空间。 目前的储存条件非常差，由于频繁的漏水和几次灾难性的洪水事件，导致大多数橱柜严重损坏。 这些情况使收藏品容易受到水，湿度，虫害等的进一步损害。植物标本馆也有目前储存在开放式架子上的标本，研究人员或公众实际上无法获得。 此外，CA。将对12，000个brittite标本进行策划，成像和数据库。 这些标本由著名的植物学家玛格丽特·富尔福德和杰里·斯奈德收集，将通过植物标本库和iDigBio.org向研究人员和公众开放。将扫描并提供3，500幅技术细节插图。 因此，该项目将通过创建一个现代化的、用户友好的设施，并通过在线、可公开访问的门户网站分享其珍贵的标本和插图收藏，促进植物标本馆向世界敞开博物馆大门的持续承诺。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并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，被认为值得支持。

This project will provide critical upgrades to the Margaret H. Fulford Herbarium at the University of Cincinnati, including a move of the collection into a new facility. The herbarium of approximately 118,500 specimens collected in the 1820s through 2021 represents a regional vascular flora and a world-class collection of mosses and liverworts. The herbarium also houses Dr. Margaret Fulford’s personal library, which includes many rare volumes, unpublished field and laboratory notebooks, and over 100 binders of original, mostly unpublished original technical illustrations. Recently, the University of Cincinnati renovated a new space for the herbarium in an adjacent building that houses the Department of Biological Sciences. The new herbarium space will dramatically improve the security and longevity of the collection, and provides additional capacity for research, education, specimen imaging and databasing, and continuing public engagement. Two ongoing education programs will be enhanced and will include a collaborative specimen imaging project involving developmentally disabled students, and a local 5th-8th grade “STEM Girls” program. This three-year project will support moving the herbarium into the new and vastly upgraded space by providing a compactor system and modern herbarium cabinets. The current storage conditions are very poor, resulting from frequent water leaks and several catastrophic flooding events, which have caused severe damage to most of the cabinets. These circumstances have left the collection vulnerable to further damage from water, humidity, insect infestations, etc. The herbarium also has specimens that are currently stored on open shelves and are effectively unavailable to researchers or the general public. In addition, ca. 12,000 bryophyte specimens will be curated, imaged, and databased. These specimens, collected by notable bryophyte specialists Margaret Fulford and Jerry Snider, will be made accessible to researchers and the general public through the herbarium databases and iDigBio.org. Finally, Fulford’s ca. 3,500 technically detailed illustrations will be scanned and made accessible. Thus, this project will facilitate the herbarium’s ongoing commitment to open the museum doors to the world by creating a modern, user-friendly facility and sharing its invaluable collection of specimens and illustrations through online, publicly accessible portals.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.