Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University

The Entomology Collection of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (ANSP) includes approximately four million insect specimens dating from the early nineteenth century. The ANSP will create a digital index for this large research collection in concert with a facility renovation and recuration project. The resulting index will enable researchers around the world to submit online queries and determine whether or not specimens needed for ongoing research projects are represented in the ANSP Entomology Collection. Indexing through the use of a relational database will also facilitate tracking of changes in specimen storage location, updating nomenclatural changes on the labels of storage cases, and updating nomenclatural changes on digital products including future specimen databases for particular taxonomic groups.