Small Collections Grant
This page is used to provide assessment scores for each grant application assigned to you. Please use the rubric below the grant details to enter your assessment scores and any notes you wish to include.
Please note that all scores entered must be whole numbers (no decimals), or you will be unable to save this form.
Save Her Specimens: Restoring Historical Specimens in the Olga Lakela Herbarium (DUL)
United States of America
Other
Cost (USD):
2000
DUL
University of Minnesota Duluth / Olga Lakela Herbarium
Objective:
The ‘Save Her Specimens’ project targets the restoration of fragile historical specimens housed in the Olga Lakela Herbarium (DUL) at the University of Minnesota Duluth (Duluth, MN, USA). Specifically, funds requested will be used to purchase high quality archival herbarium paper for reinforcing specimens that were originally mounted on flimsy, non-archival paper by Dr. Olga Lakela in the early to middle 19th century. Support from an IAPT Small Collections Grant will allow us to restore ~2,000 high-priority, at-risk specimens, thereby preserving them for long-term study.
Timetable:
The 'Save Her Specimens' project is an ongoing effort, with >20,000 specimens in need of restoration or reinforcement. Funds from an IAPT Small Collections Grant will be used to restore ~2,000 specimens during the 2020–2021 academic year. Beginning Summer 2020, herbarium staff (Gretchen Meier) and DUL mounting technicians will be trained to restore the historical specimens, which will be reinforced and/or re-mounted on new archival sheets using standard archival techniques. Currently, DUL volunteers mount ~10–20 new accessions each week; at this rate, we expect our volunteers to mount roughly 1,000 specimens throughout the duration of the IAPT grant. Support is requested to defer the cost of archival herbarium paper and additional restoration technicians (e.g. work-study students); the remainder will be paid for through the Olga Lakela Herbarium endowment.
Scoring Rubric
Reviewer's name:
Collection Improvement (max. 120 points)
-
Facilitating access to the physical collections by digitization (e.g., data entry, setting up database structure with an outline of the platform to be used, purchasing equipment, and imaging specimens) – up to 30 points.
-
Enhancing physical collections by improving the conservation status of specimens in the herbarium (e.g., better folders, protecting covers, mounting paper, labeling, etc.) – up to 30 points.
-
Curating specimens (e.g., updating families, species identification, identifying types) – up to 20 points.
-
Increasing our understanding of the flora or funga by making new herbarium specimens available, such as processing of backlog or collecting and mounting of new specimens from understudied sites – up to 20 points.
-
Securing collections by distribution of duplicates (or orphan collections) to other regional or international herbaria or shipping endangered collections to another herbarium – up to 20 points.
This proposal scores:
/120
Methods & Funding (max. 40 points)
-
Match between the proposed budget and methods for the aims described – up to 10 points.
-
Perceived need, the extent to which the project will benefit from IAPT funding: e.g., due to active floristic work or contribution to poorly collected sites, due to threatened conditions of collections, and for the degree of involvement of others (outreach and education). We give more points for herbaria in low- and middle-income countries – up to 20 points.
-
Sharing duplicate specimens with other herbaria – up to 10 points.
This proposal scores:
/40
Broader Impacts (max. 40 points)
-
Degree of regional importance of the collection or the taxonomic importance of the targeted collection – up to 10 points.
-
The project will yield durable benefits (specimens, digitized metadata, databases, websites) – up to 15 points.
-
The project involves outreach/mentoring and broad dissemination – up to 15 points.
This proposal scores:
/40
Year of last successful SCG application:
Has applicant applied for SCG before?:
Plan:
The Olga Lakela Herbarium (DUL) was founded in 1935 by Dr. Olga Lakela (1890–1980) and currently houses >55,000 botanical specimens from the northern USA and Canada. DUL is the second largest herbarium in Minnesota and is notable for its holdings of plant species at the northern/southern extent of their geographic ranges (from temperate and boreal forests, respectively), including 32 nomenclatural type specimens. The herbarium is sustained by a small endowment, generously donated by Dr. Lakela, but otherwise relies on state, institutional, and private donations for support. These contributions allow DUL to maintain a Herbarium Director (Dr. Amanda Grusz), one part-time staff member (Gretchen Meier), and multiple undergraduate work-study students. Currently, with funding from the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources, DUL staff and volunteers are digitizing and imaging the entire herbarium collection (est. completion, Spring 2021); these data will ultimately be made publicly available via the online Minnesota Biodiversity Atlas (https://bellatlas.umn.edu/). Throughout the digitization process, we have been tracking fragile historical specimens that are desperately in need of structural reinforcement and we are seeking funds from multiple sources to support their structural restoration. With an IAPT Small Collections Grant, we can reinforce ~2,000 high-priority historical specimens, thereby making them available for research for generations to come.
Institution:
IH Code:
Country:
Target areas:
Applicant First Name/s:
email:
Restoration of fragile historical specimens.
"Other" target:
Dr. Amanda Grusz
Applicant Last Name/s: