It’s been an incredibly busy year in the Repository! We finished up the NSF-funded Repository Reorganization Project, culminating with a poster presentation at GSA, and submitted a new proposal: “Computerization of the Paleontology Repository” (PI = A.F. Budd; co-PI's = J. Adrain, T. Adrain, C. Brochu). NSF awarded us $284,724 to digitize parts of the collection, upgrade server hardware, and share collections data with database projects such as the Paleontology Portal, and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility. We’ll also be able to employ two half time graduate research assistants for the next three years. The project is due to start in April 2006.

Meanwhile, Biology undergraduate student, Lori McCleary, is curating the paleobotany collection with the help of an Iowa REU grant.  Lori has been working with Jeff Schabilion (paleobotanist, Biological Sciences) to document the collection and research the history of T. H. Macbride’s South Dakota cycadeoid collection. An exciting discovery was made while tracking down the original specimens. One had been sent as a gift to the British Museum in 1894, but subsequently had been mislabeled as a cycadeoid from the Isle of Wight. We were able to confirm that the specimen was from South Dakota when we discovered a nineteenth century photograph of it in our glass plate negative archive. Lori’s poster  (McCleary et al. 2005) was presented at the UK’s Paleontological Association Annual Conference at Oxford University in December.      

Many other students have been involved with Repository projects this year. Museum Studies Intern, Mari Horton, helped devise and carry out a survey of the collections to determine curation “levels” and priorities. This was a joint project with David Lewis, Collections Manager in the Palaeontology Department of the Natural History Museum, London. We presented a paper at the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections annual conference which was also accepted for the conference proceedings volume.  Interns Tim Davis and Tamsen Foote worked with the Calvin Photographic Collection, which joined up with Iowa Heritage Digital Collections, a fantastic on-line resource of Iowa’s historic archives and images (http://iowaheritage.lib.uiowa.edu). Tim and Tamsen also organized the Shimek/Wylie photographic collection transferred from Biological Sciences. Undergraduate student, Bradie Kiefer, helped update the specimen loans system by organizing the paperwork and sending out almost 80 overdue loan reminder letters. We think we may have started a loans chain letter! Reminders to return or renew loans borrowed by UI faculty started coming in with the replies! On average, 20 - 30 loans a year are borrowed or sent out through the Repository.

Geocience undergraduate, Holly Berg, worked on the NMITA database which is being migrated to a new system. She meticulously checked hundreds of images and webpages, and corrected and organized the digital files and data. In addition, Holly completed a Directed Study to create an archive for the Repository. Several untidy stacks and boxes of Strimple, Furnish and Miller correspondence, notes, drawings, photographs and other papers connected with the Repository are now organized into archival boxes and readily accessible with the help of a finding aid. Within a week of completion, the archive was used to solve authorship of a manuscript discovered in the collections.          

As always, the Repository has been involved with several outreach projects. This year we provided activities at the Mid America Paleontology Society (MAPS) Expo, Cedar Valley Rocks and Minerals Society Show, International Center Earth Day, UI Riverfest, Iowa Association of Naturalists Spring Workshop, Iowa State Fair, and the Geoscience Halloween Open-house, as well as visits to and from local schools. A big “thank you” is due to all the students and faculty who helped with these activities. Our booklet “Millie and Sam’s Fossil Hunt” (written by Tiffany and Julie Golden) is proving very popular, and several hundred copies have been sold so far (proceeds go to MAPS for future printing).

During 2005, twenty-nine researchers visited the collections including: Rich Slaughter and two students (U. Wisconsin-Madison Geology Museum), Donnie Dressler (student, San Diego State U.), Derek Briggs (Yale U.), Ruddy Raff (U. Indiana), Ed Landing (New York State Museum), Anne Cohen (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute), Pete Kroehler (Smithsonian), I. Stefanova and Herbert E. Wright (U. Minnesota), Chris Wigda (student,  U. Kansas), Greg Erickson (Florida State University), Forest Gahn (Smithsonian), and Heyo Van Iten (Hanover College). 

We answered approximately 80 enquiries from the public (with the help of Brian Witzke and Ray Anderson – thanks guys)! We received two cash donations to the A.O. Thomas Memorial Fund, which supports the purchase of reference books for the Repository, and 937 type specimens (SUI numbers allocated) and 136 non-type specimens/lots.

Abstracts:
Adrain, T. S., Lewis, D. N. and Horton, M. M. 2005. Improving curation standards in paleontology collections ‑ where to start? Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections Annual Conference, The Natural History Museum, London, UK. SPNHC 20th Annual Meeting and Workshops, C. G. Miller and P. G. Davis (eds), p. 23-24.

Adrain, T. S., Budd, A. F., Adrain, J. M., and Golden, J. 2005. UI Paleontology Repository Reorganization Project: improving standards in collection care and access. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, 37(7): 284.

McCleary, L. Adrain, T., Schabilion, J., and Hartwig, N. 2005. Piecing together Macbride’s cycadeoid collection at the University of Iowa.49th Palaeontological Association Annual Meeting, Oxford University. Abstracts with Programme, p. 51.