Biodiversity Collections Digitization in the Pacific

iDigBio, East-West Center, Bishop Museum, University of Hawaii, and the Pacific Science Association have joined forces to host the Biodiversity Collections Digitization in the Pacific workshop, to be held 25-27 March 2014 in Honolulu. iDigBio will broadcast and record workshop proceedings and post all recordings and electronic copies of presentations to the workshop wiki.

Remote participation is invited. The agenda is available on the wiki; all times are Hawaiian Standard Time. Please login as guest to participate. We are pleased to welcome participants from Australia, Canada, Denmark, Guam, Palau, and Papua New Guinea to Hawaii for this event. Approximately 60 onsite participants will attend. 
 
This event is part of a continuing series of iDigBio-sponsored workshops focused on organizing, launching, maintaining, and enhancing biological collections digitization programs. The primary goals are to 1) enhance international collaboration and sharing regarding biological collections digitization in the Pacific, and 2) prepare participants with the necessary skills and knowledge to launch, manage, and sustain a biodiversity collections digitization program individually, through collaboration with an existing Thematic Collections Network (TCN), as a Partner with an Existing Network (PEN), through direct collaboration with iDigBio, or through collaboration with other collections and museums within the region. The target audience includes collections managers, curators, directors, digitization specialists, biodiversity informatics managers, taxonomists, and others who manage or use biodiversity collections. 
 
This is a broad-based workshop of value to many types of biodiversity collections, including all those represented in Hawaii, Guam, and other countries in the Pacific region. This workshop will focus on common and unique practices across a variety of preparations and collection types, including vascular and non-vascular plants, fungi, arthropods, and vertebrates, and will include a round-up of digitization activities in the Pacific. Ample time will be included for rich discussion and international interchange of ideas and practices.
 
Workshop content and discussion topics include but are not limited to: 1) an overview of Integrated Digitized Biocollections (iDigBio), the National Science Foundation’s national resource for Advancing Digitization of Biodiversity Collections, 2) a round-up of digitization activities in the Pacific region, 3) the future of NSF funding and other funding opportunities to support digitization programs, 4) issues in organizing and launching a collections digitization program, 5) the clusters of essential digitization tasks, 6) common and effective digitization workflows and protocols, 7) overviews, uses, and configurations of imaging systems for various collection types, 8) standards affecting database design and management, 9) issues in uniquely identifying collection objects and records, 10) strategies for incorporating genomics into digitization, 11) uses for digitized data, 12) strategies and  considerations for georeferencing collection objects, 13) methods for moving digitized data to the internet via data aggregators, harvesters, and portals, 14) how to contribute data to iDigBio’s portal and data repository, 15) tools for developing institutional portals for serving biological collections data, 16) the establishment of international working and interest groups for sustainable sharing of digitization practices and discoveries across nations, and 17) issues unique or especially relevant to collections digitization and management in the Pacific.
 
What: Biological Collections Digitization in the Pacific
Where: The East-West Center and Bishop Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii.
Who: Collections managers, curators, and directors, taxonomists, and biodiversity informatics managers and specialists who are interested in initiating, enhancing, or sustaining a biological collections digitization program.
When: March 24–28, 2014 (March 24 and 28 are travel days). Opening reception, evening of March 24, Bishop Museum.
Planning Team: Burke Burnett (Pacific Science Association), Shelley James (Bishop Museum), Nancy Lewis (East-West Center), Gil Nelson (iDigBio), Michael Thomas (University of Hawaii).