Critical improvement of the Rocky Mountain Herbarium: securing and enabling access to the world's largest collection of plants in the Rocky Mountain region

落基山植物标本室是美国最大的公立大学植物标本室之一。拥有超过100万的标本，它包含了世界上最全面的落基山脉植物收藏。RM已经超出了它的空间，这些标本的大部分是研究人员无法接近的。RM的快速增长是大规模库存计划的结果，重点是记录落基山脉的植物群。该项目将大大增加RM标本和相关数据的可访问性，用于研究、教学和推广。将增加200多个植物标本室，以确保超过42万个标本的安全，并允许中央怀俄明学院植物标本室的合并。一项关键活动将是对所有尚未成像的已安装标本进行成像，从而产生总计70万个完全数字化的标本，这将大大增加怀俄明州和落基山脉收集数据的可访问性，这些数据被公共和土地管理机构广泛使用。该项目还包括一个暑期实习计划，以培养下一代植物标本室科学家在标本管理和基于标本的研究方面的传统和现代方面。怀俄明大学落基山植物标本室（RM）急需扩建，以确保目前无法获取和面临风险的大量标本。此外，中央怀俄明学院植物标本馆（CWC）将被合并，该地区收藏了大约45,000个标本，自其教师馆长退休以来一直关闭。通过增加植物标本室的橱柜，RM将确保目前在现有橱柜顶部的纸板箱中的标本，并解决已经安装但研究人员无法访问的25万个标本的积压问题。标本将被成像，包括那些在CWC植物标本馆的标本，以提供对来自怀俄明州和落基山脉的近70万个标本的完全数字化的标本记录的访问。数据将通过RM标本门户网站、地区、国家和国际数据聚合器和联盟（包括iDigBio.org）提供。此外，该项目将作为夏季落基山植物标本馆实习的平台，目的是通过直接的实践经验，提供植物标本馆管理、管理和研究的基础知识。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。

The Rocky Mountain Herbarium (RM) is among the largest public university herbaria in the United States. With over 1 million accessioned specimens, it contains the most comprehensive collection of Rocky Mountain plants in the world. The RM has outgrown its space and the bulk of these specimens are inaccessible to researchers. Rapid growth of the RM is the result of a large-scale inventory program focused on documenting the flora of the Rocky Mountains. This project will provide for greatly increased accessibility of RM specimens and associated data, that are used for research, teaching, and outreach. More than 200 herbarium cabinets will be added to secure over 420,000 specimens and allow for incorporation of the Central Wyoming College Herbarium. A key activity will be to image all mounted specimens that have not yet been imaged, resulting in a total 700,000 completely digitized specimens that will substantially increase accessibility of collections data from Wyoming and the Rocky Mountains that are widely used by the public and land management agencies. The project also includes a summer internship program, to train the next generation of herbarium scientists in both traditional and modern aspects of specimen curation and specimen-based research.The University of Wyoming Rocky Mountain Herbarium (RM) is in critical need of expansion to secure the large number of specimens that are currently inaccessible and at risk. In addition, the Central Wyoming College Herbarium (CWC), a regional collection of ca. 45,000 specimens shuttered since the retirement of its faculty curator, will be incorporated. Through the addition of the herbarium cabinets, the RM will secure specimens that are currently in cardboard boxes on the tops of existing cabinets and address a backlog of 250,000 specimens that are already mounted but inaccessible to researchers. Specimens will be imaged, including those in the CWC herbarium, to provide access to completely digitized specimen records or nearly 700,000 specimens from Wyoming and the Rocky Mountains. Data will be made available through the RM specimen portal, regional, national, and international data aggregators and consortia including iDigBio.org. In addition, this project will serve as a platform for a summer Rocky Mountain Herbarium Internship with the goal of providing a foundational knowledge of herbarium management, curation, and research through a directed, hands-on experience.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.