TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT OF INSECT COLLECTIONS IN THE U.S. THROUGH THE ENTOMOLOGICAL COLLECTIONS MANAGEMENT WORKSHOP

自然历史藏品是地球生物多样性的档案，为我们了解地球和影响社会的生态相互作用提供信息。最近的全球倡议，以生物标本馆已经改变了这些生物库如何有助于综合生物研究的范围和规模。对收集工作及其数据的兴趣正在增加，但大部分工作人员的能力仍保持不变。昆虫标本尤其重要，因为昆虫代表了最多样化和最丰富的动物群体，已知物种超过100万种。昆虫在我们的日常生活中无处不在，也是大多数生态系统的重要组成部分。它们对人类健康也很重要，因为大多数植物授粉者、疾病媒介和农业害虫都是昆虫。收藏品的组织和维护只能通过博物馆工作人员的专业知识和经验，通常直接从一代传给下一代，因为没有正式的计划在整个社区中这样做。这种代际知识转移在工作人员有限的小型收藏中尤其重要，这些收藏占美国所有昆虫收藏的70%。尽管规模庞大，但由于其强大的区域收藏，这些藏品往往极具价值。这一努力将产生一个全面的计划，为收集人员提供正式的最佳实践培训，包括面对面和在线培训，并为各个职业阶段和机构的收集工作者提供急需的网络机会，与更广泛的收集社区分享他们的知识和经验。该奖项支持昆虫收藏管理研讨会系列的逐步发展，包括虚拟参与和材料，由昆虫收藏网络（ECN）和美国昆虫学会（ESA）系统学，进化和生物多样性（SysEB）部门共同赞助。研讨会定于2022年夏季至2024年每年举行，由耶鲁皮博迪自然历史博物馆、克利夫兰自然历史博物馆和亚利桑那州立大学轮流主办。该讲习班将发展成为一个虚拟和面对面的混合活动。在为期3-4天的研讨会期间，与会者将接受昆虫标本收藏管理方面的培训，涵盖广泛的主题，包括政策，标本处理，策展，保护和数字化等各种主题。该项目将鼓励收藏工作人员、管理人员和与小型收藏有关的学生参与，因为他们在培训和收藏发展方面的资源往往较为有限。该研讨会还将帮助资助学生和早期职业研究人员的参与，这是收藏管理社区中最大和最多样化（在性别，种族和社会经济背景方面）的部分。因此，这次讲习班提供的专业发展机会将导致一个更高技能和更一体化的收藏管理人员社区。本次研讨会的虚拟部分将通过ECN网站与更广泛的社区共享，亲自研讨会的结果也将在ECN年会上公布。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。

Natural history collections are an archive of Earth's biodiversity, informing our understanding of the planet and ecological interactions that impact society. Recent global initiatives to digitize biological collections have transformed the scope and scale of how these biorepositories contribute to integrative biological research. Interest in collections and their data is increasing, however much of the workforce capacity remains the same. Entomological collections are especially important because insects represent the most diverse and abundant group of animals with over one million known species. Insects are ubiquitous in our everyday lives and an essential part of most ecosystems. They are also important to human health, as the majority of plant pollinators, disease vectors, and agricultural pests are insects. Collections are organized and maintained only through the specialized knowledge and experience of museum personnel, generally passed directly from one generation to the next, as no formal program has existed to do this across the community. This generational knowledge transfer has been especially important in smaller collections with limited staff, which represent ~70% of all U.S. insect collections. Despite their size, these collections are often extremely valuable due to their strong regional holdings. This effort will produce a comprehensive program to provide formal best-practices training, both in-person and online, to collections personnel, as well as providing much-needed networking opportunities for collections workers across career stages and institutions to share their knowledge and experience with the broader collections' community.This award supports the progressive advancement of the Entomological Collections Management Workshop Series, including virtual participation and material, co-sponsored by the Entomological Collections Network (ECN) and the Systematics, Evolution, and Biodiversity (SysEB) Section of the Entomological Society of America (ESA). The workshops are scheduled to take place annually in summer 2022 to 2024, with hosting rotating between the Yale Peabody Natural History Museum, Cleveland Museum of Natural History, and Arizona State University. The workshop will be developed as a hybrid virtual and in-person event. During the 3-4 day workshop, participants will receive training in entomological collections management covering a wide range of topics, various topics including policies, specimen handling, curation, conservation, and digitization. This project will encourage the participation of collections staff managers and students associated with smaller collections, as they often have with more limited resources for training and collection development. This workshop will also help fund participation by students and early career researchers, the largest and most diverse (in terms of gender, ethnicity, and socio-economic background) segment of the collections management community. The professional development opportunities provided by this workshop will thus lead to a more highly skilled and integrative community of collections management personnel. The virtual components of this workshop will be shared to the broader community through the ECN website, with the results of in-person workshops also presented at the ECN annual meetings.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.