9616372 Bieler The collections of Recent pulmonate gastropods (land snails) at the Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH) contain about 3.5 million specimens in about 208,000 dry shell and alcoholic lots. FMNH's land snail collection is one of the most comprehensive in the world, especially for the eastern U.S. species. These collections comprise a unique resource for ecological, environmental, systematic and other studies. The holdings, including many primary types, and "orphaned" historic collections from other institutions, have never been inventoried, and much of the information has remained inaccessible. NSF funding will provide computer cataloging staff, and equipment and supplies for re-housing and expanding the pulmonate snail collection. Results of the project will include: counting of specimens, updates of certain label information, re-housing of problem lots, production and distribution of new labels, archival storage of specimens and labels, separation of previously 'hidden' type material, updated and expanded collection arrangement, further development of authority fields, and presentation of the data, data model and authority files on FMNH's World Wide Web site. The project is funded by a partnership among the NSF, the USGS Biological Resources Division, and the Field Museum, which is matching the award with staff time, hardware and software for the database system, and additional supplies.
