Since we are virtual again this year we created a way to digitize some of that organic mentoring magic that happens at every conference through the virtual Digital Data Mentorship Program.

Draba verna flowering. Image taken from: https://awkwardbotany.com/2018/05/23/tiny-plants-draba-verna/

Every year around this time I think about Aldo Leopold’s ode to Draba, a tiny, inconspicuous plant that can serve as an early sign of spring in some areas for the extra observant. 

Synopsis of Program:

Ghost Jelly (Cyanea nozakii)

Contributed by Lauren Bradley (University of Florida Student and 2021 iDigBio Summer Intern)

Dead Leaf Butterfly! (Kallima inachus)

Contributed by: Lauren Bradley

Autumn is right around the corner, and what a beautiful season it is! Here in Florida, we see the occasional red or yellow leaf during the autumn months, but really, all we can hope for is some cooler weather, and even that isn’t guaranteed. The Kallima inachus seems to agree with us humans in admiring the beauty of autumn, as they have evolved to imitate dead leaves! (Thus giving them their common name, the dead leaf butterfly). 

Contributed by: Molly Phillips 

TDWG 2021, the annual conference of Biodiversity Information Standards, will be held virtually October 18-22, 2021, hosted by the University of Florida.  The theme of this year’s conference, Connecting the world of biodiversity data:  standards uniting people, processes, and tools, will build on lessons learned during the preceding 18 months of virtual interaction and collaboration during the COVID-19 pandemic.  TDWG 2021 will be held on the virtual platform Whova, and the schedule will include keynote lectures, symposia, workshops, demos, contribut

Thoreau still contributes to climate change research
New study uses Henry David Thoreau’s observations of fruiting times

Digitized museum specimens, such this bluebead lily (Clintonia borealis), were used to determine the time of fruit ripening. © Consortium of Northeast Herbaria.

The Guatemala Biodiversity Portal, a national digitization effort using Symbiota

Contributed by Samanta Orellana

As the hub for digitization of U.S. natural history collections, iDigBio aims to engage our community in promoting a more diverse, equitable, inclusive, and actively anti-racist community. To that end, the iDigBio team focused on issues of Education, Outreach, Diversity, and Inclusion has compiled this reading list to begin conversations in the classroom, in museum collections, and among colleagues. 

Dear iDigBio Enthusiasts,

I am delighted to report that iDigBio enjoyed an exceptionally successful and productive 2020 made possible in large part by contributions of the many collaborators whose consistent support, involvement, and input have been highly valued and much appreciated. We enter the new year eager to continue integral involvement in the biodiversity collections community.   

Contributed by: Molly Phillips

Contributed by Cat Chapman

Have you ever been out on a walk through nature, or even in your neighborhood, and saw what appeared to be a clump of tiny leaves, debris, or lichen… only to see it move?

Upon closer inspection of this mysteriously motile clump of detritus, you may see that it has tiny little legs underneath it. It’s alive!

Meet the trash bug!

Contributed by: Aaron Goodman, Graduate Student Department of Entomology, California Academy of Sciences.

Contributed by Luis D. Verde Arregoitia.
Find him on Twitter @LuisDVerde or on his Website.

Welcome to all of the newly NSF-funded Advancing Digitization of Biodiversity Collections (ADBC) projects. This year we have three new Thematic Collections Networks (TCNs) and six Partners to Existing Networks (PENs) joining the community.

2019 TCNs:

Contributed by: J Ryan Allen, Dina Clark and Erin Tripp (University of Colorado)

The 99th Annual Meeting and Centennial Celebration of the American Society of Mammalogists took place 28 June to 2 July 2019, at the birthplace of ASM, Washington, DC. iDigBio helped to mark this important milestone through organizing a session on broadening representation in mammalogy as well organizing the first ever Data Help Desk at ASM.

Bioblitz group photo (Florida Museum Photo Department)

Augustus Fendler Herbarium Specimens: A Locality Improvement Project

A component of the Southern Rocky Mountain Flora Database Project
Lance J. Gloss and Timothy J. S. Whitfeld
Brown U. Herbarium (BRU)
Dec 2017 - May 2018

Introduction

Summit 2018 group photo

Utilising publicly available species occurrence records to generate contemporary estimates of medically important snake species distributions

Contributed by: Joshua Longbottom, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine

Contributed by: Timothy J. Baroni & Andrew N. Miller
State University of New York, Cortland, NY and University of Illinois, Champaign, IL

Chlorophyllum molybdites (Image courtesy of Roy Halling)

Digital Coyote; an online archive of skulls

Contributed by: Osrica Mclean and Declan McCabe

How can you provide an authentic opportunity for undergraduate students to study geographical variation without hauling them to major metropolitan museums and arranging access to valuable specimens?  This question started a slightly obsessive odyssey that began with a single coyote skull and now stands at 125 skulls….and counting.

The oldest specimen in the MyCoPortal is housed at Purdue and was collected in 1769 in Tierra Del Fuego at the southern tip of South America. It was collected by the Englishman Sir Joseph Banks and Dr.

From the Tropics to the Drawer and Back: Digitized New World Swallowtail Butterfly Specimens Inform Biodiversity Patterns

Contributed by: Hannah Owens from the Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida

New Insights from Old Herbarium Specimens

Contributed by Richard B. Primack (Boston University; primack@bu.edu) and Charles G. Willis (Harvard University; charleswillis@fas.harvard.edu)

“Live in each season as it passes - breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit & resign yourself to the influence of each.”  Thoreau, in his Journal. 1835

Contributed by Pam Soltis and Adania Flemming

iDigBio supported five students in its inaugural mini-REU site program during summer, 2017. This program, modeled on NSF’s Research Experiences for Undergraduates Program, was developed to provide undergraduates with research opportunities using digitized natural history collection data.

Contributed by: Rod Eastwood Curator, Entomological Collection, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Zürich, Institut für Agrarwissenschaften, Biocommunication & Entomology, Zürich, Switzerland

Collections Data Reveals Complex Plant/Pollinator Network, Inspires Research

Contributed by Dylan Ricke and Annika Rose-Person, Archbold Biological Station

Contributed by: Teresa Iturriaga, Rhianna Baldree, Alex Kuhn, Andrew N. Miller
University of Illinois, Illinois Natural History Survey, 1816 South Oak Street, Champaign, IL 61820-6970

We forget because remembering everything is impossible.

We also forget because remembering can be painful and raise too many questions that have no clear answers.

Such is the case regarding many ghost towns. They remind us of the transience of everything.

During its inaugural year, the Worldwide Engagement for Digitizing Biocollections Event, WeDigBio 2015, engaged thousands of citizen scientists from >50 countries in transcribing specimen labels over four days.

iDigBio and the Small Collections Network (SCNet) are pleased to announce the upcoming Small Collections Symposium at SPNHC 2016, to be held in Berlin, June 20-25.

Dear iDigBio Enthusiasts,

We (Deb Paul, Cathy Bester, and Molly Phillips) had a fun and productive time staffing the iDigBio exhibit at the 95th Annual meeting of the American Society of Mammalogists Conference in Jacksonville, Florida, June 12-15, 2015. We set up the 10’ exhibit with the TV displaying the iDigBio Explore Research video series (thank you to Kevin Love and Chris Baker for helping us set up!).

Each year, iDigBio surveys its internal team and the collections community, broader scientific community, partners, stakeholders, and others interested in the national digitization effort to find out how we are doing. We use the feedback to inform our decision-making and to help us set priorities and determine next steps. We are grateful to the nearly 250 individuals who participated in this year’s survey!

UF CAIRES (Center for Adaptive Innovation, Resilience, Ethics, and Science) sponsored a two-day Sustainability and Social Media Conference on Friday, April 17-18 2015, at the Levin School of Law. iDigBio graduate student Randy Singer was fortunate enough to be invited as a panelist for a session on Digitizing Nature.
   

Managing Natural History Collections Data for Global Discoverability is fourth in a series of biodiversity informatics workshops at iDigBio and we are currently accepting applications! Don't wait, space is limited.

Deadline to Apply is May 1st, 2015.

Dear iDigBio Friends and Family,

Summary

iDigBio and the Florida Museum of Natural History co-sponsored a half-day introductory workshop to the website/application iNaturalist on Friday, September 26, 2014, at the Florida Museum of Natural History.

Amanda Neill, Director of the Herbarium, Botanical Research Institute of Texas
August 15th, 2014

Larkin infrared thermal imaging demo-SPNHC 2014 DemoCamp