A grant has been awarded to the Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ) at Harvard University under the direction of Dr. Scott Edwards to complete computerization of its ornithology collection. The collection is ranked fifth in the world, ranked by number of specimens, and fourth in North America. Some specimens with special historical value date back to the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Nearly 50% of the collection, consisting of 157,000 skin and skeleton records, will be computerized through this project. The data will be made immediately accessible to the public through the ORNIS and GBIF online search engines. The MCZ will conduct a two-day teacher training workshop for middle and high school teachers in collaboration with the Harvard Museum of Natural History and will create an educator's guide that will elucidate how to access the MCZ collections and use them as a teaching tool.
