SPNHC Symposium (rescheduled from June 10): Envisioning Collections Management for the Evolving Biodiversity Data Lifecycle

Please join us for a symposium on "Envisioning Collections Management for the Evolving Biodiversity Data Lifecycle," originally prepared for the SPNHC & ICOMNATHIST 2020 Conference. This event has been rescheduled from June 10 to June 23, 2020.

Zoom link: https://ufl.zoom.us/j/92345453432?pwd=czhhZDJpSm4zejlDVXhuU2FJMFVmUT09 (password is 712214)

Collaborative notes for this symposium: https://bit.ly/3dhWafc

Symposium abstract

The role of collections management in the biodiversity data lifecycle has been dramatically affected by worldwide specimen digitization programs. Institutions looking to support a visionary future for collections-based biodiversity data need to cultivate a culture of lifelong learning as the expectations of

collections management evolve. This symposium will highlight key challenges and opportunities involved in designing and driving such a vision that can address impending global challenges.

Reviewing actual and potential uses for data generated by digitization programs reveals a rich resource, with significant promise to address critical needs for humans and the planet. Furthermore, groups like the Biodiversity Collections Network envision an “extended specimen network” that would go beyond basic specimen digitization and include complexities parallel to those in the physical world, e.g., trait data, linked data, expanded metadata, etc. Identifying the skills, tools, and personnel roles that could realize such a network and take advantage of its potential highlights challenges on all organizational levels and includes diverse stakeholders. From researchers desiring richer datasets, to collections staff looking for streamlined workflows, to curators interested in sharing knowledge generated from specimen-based research, to museum directors highlighting data assets, the list of stakeholders expands along with our vision for the future potential of biodiversity data.

Stakeholder communities have put considerable effort into capacity-building aligned with producing and managing biodiversity data throughout its lifecycle. That said, skills development is a constant need, and the tools that would complement these skills in an extended specimen network require significant enhancement. Concurrently, the personnel roles typically associated with different aspects of the biodiversity data lifecycle (e.g., collection, digitization, mobilization, management, publication) are constantly being refined. As this happens, the people responsible for these roles, and the institutions that house them, may need to re-evaluate capacity, infrastructure, and behavior at an organizational level.

Symposium presentations

• Human and Infrastructure Evolution for 21st-Century Collections (Deb Paul)
• The Dynamic Role of Collections Managers (Gabriela Hogue & Megan McCuller)
• Collection Management in a Changed Digital Landscape: Progress and Challenges for the US Herbarium with a Newly Digitized Collection (Sylvia Orli)
• Better Together: Merging Our Knowledge About People, Places, Collections, and Taxonomies with Wikidata (Anton Güntsch)
• Interpreting Data Quality, or How Collections Can Approach Providing Useful and Useable Data (Elycia Wallis)
• Data Management Strategies for the Extended Specimen (Teresa Mayfield-Meyer)

Symposium organizers

Paul D², McCuller M¹, Hogue G¹, Krimmel E², Livermore L³, James S⁴ , Marshall C⁵
¹iDigBio, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, United States, ²North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh, North Carolina, United States, ³Natural History Museum, London, England, ⁴Western Australian Herbarium, Perth, Australia, ⁵Oregon State University, Oregon, United States