Registration is open for the Specimen Digitization Tools and Practices Workshop at the Botany 2012 Conference. The workshop will introduce current and future biological and paleontological specimen collections staff to resources and workflows that can lead to greater efficiencies in the digitization of their collections. The workshop is organized by iDigBio, the National Resource for Advancing Digitization of Biodiversity Collections. It will be held from 8:00 AM – 5:30 PM on Thursday, July 12, the day after the conference at the conference facility. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner for registered workshop participants will be provided.
To register for the workshop, send an email by June 15 to Cathy Bester (cbester@flmnh.ufl.edu). Include your name and institution as you would like them to appear on your name tag. You do NOT have to attend the Botany 2012 conference to attend the workshop. We will accommodate as many participants as the budget permits.
The workshopwill include a mix of new perspectives on digitization with hands-on presentations of production-version tools, presentations of ad hoc innovations in digitization, and discussions. A tentative schedule is below.
| 7:30–8:00 | Coffee and breakfast |
| 8:00 | Welcome (Pam Soltis and Austin Mast, iDigBio) |
| 8:00–8:20 | Context: The Strategic Plan for Establishing The Network Integrated Biocollections Alliance (Judy Skog, NSF/George Mason University) |
| 8:20–8:40 | The Five Task Clusters of Digitization (Gil Nelson, iDigBio) |
| 8:40–9:00 | An Industrial Engineer’s Perspective on Digitization (Rod Eastwood, Harvard) |
| 9:00–9:20 | A Library Science Perspective on Digitization (Bryan Heidorn, Univ. of Arizona) |
| 9:20–9:40 | Best Practices for Digitization Workflow Policies (Linda S. Ford, Harvard) |
| 9:40–10:00 | Best Practices for Managing and Motivating the Digitizers (Larry Gall, Yale) |
| 10:00–10:20 | Rapid Digitization of the World's Largest Herbarium (Henri Michiels, Paris Herbarium) |
| 10:20–10:40 | Discussion |
| 10:40–11:00 | Break |
| 11:00–12:00 | Six 10-Minute Contributed Talks by Participants |
| 12:00–1:00 | Lunch |
| 1:00–2:00 | Six 10-Minute Contributed Talks by Participants |
| 2:00–2:20 | Hands-on Demonstration of Specify (Andrew Bentley, Univ. of Kansas) |
| 2:20–2:40 | Hands-on Demonstration of GEOLocate (Nelson Rios, Tulane) |
| 2:40–3:00 | Hands-on Demonstration of Symbiota (Edward Gilbert, Symbiota) |
| 3:00–3:20 | Break |
| 3:20–3:40 | Hands-on Demonstration of SilverBiology (Michael Giddens, SilverBiology) |
| 3:40–4:00 | Hands-on Demonstration of Morphbank (Deb Paul, Florida State) |
| 4:00–4:20 | Hands-on Demonstration of Apiary (Jason Best, BRIT) |
| 4:20–4:40 | Hands-on Demonstration of iPlant Tools (Naim Matasci, iPlant Collaborative) |
| 4:40–5:00 | Hands-on Demonstration of Encyclopedia of Life Tools (Katja Schulz, Smithsonian) |
| 5:00–5:30 | Discussion |
| 6:00 | Dinner |
iDigBio has also organized a symposium entitled “Building a High-Resolution, Specimen-Based Picture of Life: Possibilities and Challenges” as part of the Botany 2012 conference. It will be held on the afternoon of Wednesday, July 11, from 1:30-5:45. More details on the symposium will appear on the conference website (http://www.2012.botanyconference.org/).
iDigBio is the National Resource for Advancing Digitization of Biodiversity Collections (ADBC) funded by the National Science Foundation. The mission of iDigBio is to develop a national infrastructure that supports the vision of ADBC by overseeing implementation of standards and best practices for digitization; building and deploying a customized cloud computing environment for collections; recruiting and training personnel, including underserved groups; engaging the research community, collections community, citizen scientists, and the public through education and outreach activities; and planning for long-term sustainability of the national digitization effort. For more information, visit http://www.idigbio.org.
