University of Iowa’s bird collection moves into better nest

IOWA CITY - Want to check out a book about meadowlarks? How about a specimen of an actual meadowlark?

The University of Iowa Museum of Natural History would be the place to go. And officials there want to keep it that way, driving their pursuit for hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of upgrades to the UI ornithology collection.

'You can think of it as a library of primary sources for biology,” said Trina Roberts, director of UI Pentacrest Museums. Where historians might turn to an archive in search of someone's letters or papers, 'I'm a biologist,” Roberts said.

'If I want to do a research project on birds, sometimes the primary source that I want is birds,” she said. 'I don't want to go to a library and check out papers. I want to go to a library and check out some cardinals.”

The university has been developing its ornithology collection since its natural history museum debuted in 1858 - making it the oldest U.S. university museum west of the Mississippi River.

Its 13,880 bird and 17,220 egg and nest specimens have been donated by members of the public, students and researchers.

As one of the largest and best documented, the UI collection functions as a sort of lending library, allowing researchers from anywhere to check out items.

The specimens boast 'ecological importance” in their ability to shed light on the effects of land use and climate change, invasive species and modern agricultural practices. And officials expect their value will increase as science continues to advance.

'We have specimens from these time and space points that nobody else has,” Roberts said. 'The way science works is that everyone's collection turns out to be important because everyone has a piece of this global puzzle. What we have is unique.”

For years, the growing collection has been housed in old plywood cabinets in parts of the university's Macbride Hall - including the attic. And that was a concern, prompting UI museum officials to apply for a National Science Foundation grant.

'We looked at the collection and said, you know what, these are still fine, but they're not going to be fine forever in these early 20th century cabinets,” Roberts said. 'It was a question of upgrading before things got bad - rather than because things had already got bad.”

The university landed the three-year, $366,540 grant in spring 2015 and staff is about halfway through the upgrades, which will improve conditions by alleviating crowding and securing and stabilizing the collection.

The project's major activities include installation of a compactor storage system and new cabinets - all in one room. Consolidating and rehousing the collection will enable more efficient use of space, organization and access to staff and visitors.

'This upgrade will bring the entire ornithology collection into an environmentally controlled room for the first time in its history,” according to grant documents.

As part of the project, all specimens also will be geo-referenced, and scientifically and historically significant items will be photographed - increasing the collection's digital data. It could introduce museum visitors to the research collections and their role in modern science, although officials reported the upgrades primarily will benefit researchers and students.

'We are not remounting specimens or anything like that,” Roberts said. 'What we are doing is making sure this research resource that we have is preserved for as long as possible in as good condition as possible.”

The project, slated for completion next summer, will provide the university with sufficient storage space, although Roberts said officials aren't yet using this as an opportunity to build the collection.

'Right now it's a question of stabilizing and preserving the collection we have and putting ourselves in a better situation later,” Roberts said.

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