Start | View Uploaded Presentations | Author Index | Meeting Information

GSA Annual Meeting in Seattle, Washington, USA - 2017

Paper No. 380-1
Presentation Time: 9:00 AM-6:30 PM

CURATION OF THE ROYAL H. MAPES INVERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY COLLECTION AT THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY: STRATEGIES FOR DIGITIZATION AND OUTREACH


HERNANDEZ, Alexander V.1, BOZER, Ryan Alejandro2, DETTMAN, Minda C.3, DRUMMER, Keara Y.4, RUBIN, Sarah E.5, VARGAS-PARRA, Ernesto E.1, O'LEARY, Ruth6, LANDMAN, Neil H.7, HOPKINS, Melanie8 and HUSSAINI, Bushra M.8, (1)Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, NY 10024, (2)Geology, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, 501 E St. Joseph Street, Rapid City, SD 57701, (3)Geology, Earlham College, 801 National Road West, Richmond, IN 47374, (4)Environmental, Geographical, and Geological Sciences, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, 400 E 2nd Street, Bloomsburg, PA 17815, (5)Geology, Montana State University, 211 Montana Hall, Bozeman, MT 59717, (6)Division of Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, NY 10024, (7)Division of Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th St, New York, NY 10024, (8)Division of Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, NY 10024-5192, mcdettm14@earlham.edu

The Royal H. Mapes Invertebrate Paleontology Collection arrived at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in 2013. This collection, the result of 45 years of collecting by Royal and Gene Mapes, comprises approximately 540,000 Paleozoic (predominantly Carboniferous) marine specimens from the United States and around the world.

The AMNH currently has a three-year IMLS grant (MA-30-15-0491-15) to employ six summer interns per year to rehouse, catalog, and create a database for the Mapes Collection. In curating the collection, efficient processing is essential to meet the goals of the grant and to expedite researchers’ access to the collection. In 2017, the grant’s second year, the AMNH amended the approach to the project with the goals of improving workflow, problem solving, and documenting issues that have been resolved. By the end of summer 2017, approximately two thirds of the collection will have been curated.

There are three major phases in the curation and conservation process: specimens are rehoused in archival-quality material, cataloged, and data associated with specimens are captured in databases. Missing or incomplete information creates multiple problems including: inconsistencies in locality information between databases and specimen tags; lack of documentation of locality information sources; and discrepancies in the formatting of database entries.

Work done during this project will only serve a purpose if the collection is maintained and used, and future use relies on making specimen data available, and outreach. To ensure accessibility to the collection, the specimen data will ultimately be uploaded onto online databases, providing worldwide access to researchers, students, and the general public. Building upon established workflow methods and resolving problems encountered in curation, quality-controlled data can be entered more efficiently, easing the future online database transition.

The curation process has been archived in a blog written by the interns. In addition, this year’s documentation standards of data-entry and methods for determining locality information will be compiled for future staff use. By cleaning up the database and establishing a stricter protocol for data entry, we hope to improve access to the collection for anyone working with it in the future.

Session No. 380--Booth# 303

T63. Cephalopod Paleobiology and Paleoecology: A Tribute to Royal H. Mapes (Posters)
Wednesday, 25 October 2017: 9:00 AM-6:30 PM
Halls 4EF (Washington State Convention Center)
Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 49, No. 6
doi: 10.1130/abs/2017AM-300740
© Copyright 2017 The Geological Society of America (GSA), all rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted to the author(s) of this abstract to reproduce and distribute it freely, for noncommercial purposes. Permission is hereby granted to any individual scientist to download a single copy of this electronic file and reproduce up to 20 paper copies for noncommercial purposes advancing science and education, including classroom use, providing all reproductions include the complete content shown here, including the author information. All other forms of reproduction and/or transmittal are prohibited without written permission from GSA Copyright Permissions.
Back to: T63. Cephalopod Paleobiology and Paleoecology: A Tribute to Royal H. Mapes (Posters)
Previous Abstract | Next Abstract >>