| Abstract | Funded by the National Science Foundation’s Advancing Digitization of Biodiversity Collections (NSF ADBC) Program, the Macroalgal Herbarium Consortium is in the process of digitizing 1.2 million specimens from 49 U.S. herbaria. Digitization is being done at 18 different herbaria whose macroalgal collections range in size from 3,500 to 150,000 specimens. The workflow for the project was designed to work effectively for small herbaria and to be scalable for larger collections. The equipment investment is fairly modest. Imaging uses a 21 megapixel digital camera, copy stand, light box, computer and software.Data transcription and georeferencing is done directly through the projects data portal (macroalgae.org), which was built using Symbiota software (symbiota.org). Most tasks in the workflow can be accomplished reliably by student or volunteer workers. An overview of the workflow will be presented including: 1) barcoding and skeletal record creation, 2) specimen imaging, 3) image processing and quality control, 4) skeletal record and image uploading, 5) label transcription via OCR and voice recognition, 6) georeferencing via GeoLocate |
