University of Montana Biodiversity Research Collections

The University of Montana Biodiversity Research Collections (UMBRC) will enhance Montana’s museum workforce by creating a robust natural history collections career pathway for students and public audiences. The project supports a natural history collections assistantship program that will provide graduate students with training in curation, digital asset management, mentoring interns, and public programming and outreach. UMBRC will also create a natural history collections pathway within the University of Montana’s existing Museum Studies certificate program, by offering coursework specific to natural history collections that will prepare current and future museum professionals to collect, curate, digitize, and database natural history specimens. UMBRC curators and graduate assistants will facilitate a workshop series that addresses collection management for institutions and citizen scientists, researchers, public and private land managers, and amateur naturalists. As a result, the UMBRC will expand its capacity to recruit and train future museum professionals while also providing the public with the knowledge and resources to support reciprocally beneficial collaboration with natural history museums.