The National Science Foundation-funded Advancing Digitization of Biological Collections (ADBC) will put into electronic format all records in U.S. collections of biological specimens.
Records includes taxonomic, geographic and chronological data associated with specimens, as well as images, field notes, and other information useful in understanding biodiversity.
The project essentially will create a Library of Life consisting of the vast amount of taxonomic, geographical and chronological information in institutional collections on the world's biodiversity.
ADBC will be distributed nationally with iDigBio, the HUB, located at the University of Florida and Florida State University, and TCNs = Thematic Collections Networks, located elsewhere in the U.S. Each TCN is a network of institutions with a strategy for digitizing information that addresses a particular research theme, such as impacts of climate change or biota of a region. Once digitized, data are easily accessed and available for other research and educational use.
Three TCNs, listed below, were funded in the first year, others will be funded in succeeding years. ADBC is a 10-year project. You may obtain more information on the TCN websites (under development) or by contacting the Principal Investigators.
-
Illinois Natural History Survey at University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana
PI: Christopher Dietrich (dietrich@inhs.uiuc.edu)
Topic: InvertNet--An Integrative Platform for Research on Environmental Change, Species Discovery and Identification
To be digitized: 6.9 million specimens
Website: http://invertnet.dyndns.org/ -
University of Wisconsin at Madison
PIs: Corinna Gries (cgries@wisc.edu)
Topic: North American Lichens and Bryophytes: Sensitive Indicators of Environmental Quality and Change
To be digitized: 2.3 million specimens
Related portals: http://symbiota.org/nalichens/index.php
http://symbiota.org/bryophytes/index.php -
American Museum of Natural History
PI: Randall T. Schuh (schuh@amnh.org)
Title: Collaborative Research: Plants, Herbivores, and Parasitoids: A Model System for the Study of Tri-trophic Associations
To be digitized: 4.0 million specimens
iDigBio will organize the national effort by working with TCNs, and other institutions as they join the project, by building teams and providing infrastructure to accomplish the goals of ADBC.
- Building teams entails bringing together collection-oriented researchers with IT experts and users of collections data into working groups that address problems related to digitization and identify best practices for getting the most useful information to users.
- Providing infrastructure involves reviewing and recommending methods, software and hardware related to digitization, facilitating development of new methods where feasible, and providing access to long-term storage.
