Museum of Northern Arizona

The Museum of Northern Arizona will enhance the security, accessibility, and preservation of its paleontology collections by improving environmental storage conditions. The museum will hire a paleontology preparator and work with a conservation consultant to stabilize specimens and rehouse them in archival storage mounts prior to their installation in new compactor storage cases. The project team will verify catalog records and update storage locations for more than 9,000 fossil specimens, as well as publish digitized images and catalog data on type and cited specimens in iDigBio. An industrial hygienist will assess radioactivity and/or radon gas levels in the paleontology storage areas, and the museum will integrate relevant findings into its preservation plan and collections management policy while developing health and safety procedures to comply with regulatory standards. The improved preservation environment will contribute to the long-term preservation of the collections and provide greater access for museum staff, visiting scholars, graduate students, and professional and emerging museum colleagues.