The NSC Alliance [1], Network Integrated Biocollections Alliance Research Coordination Network [2] and iDigBio [3] have joined together to plan a plenary program that will kick off the 2015 annual meeting of the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections.

The program will begin at 8:00 a.m. on Tuesday, May 19, 2015.

Need to join us remotely? Log in on Tue (8 AM EDT) to listen: http://idigbio.adobeconnect.com/spnhc2015 [4] (please use headphones for best experience)

The program includes:

8:30: In Defense of Specimen Collecting, Natural History Collections, and Bioethics
Larry M. Page, Director, iDigBio, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida

9:00: Evidence of Evolution: Darwin's Cabinet of Curiosities
Susan Middleton, Research Associate, California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco

9:30: Endless Forms, Most Useful
Erin Tripp, Curator of Botany, Museum of Natural History, and
Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado

10:00: Break

10:30: WeDigBio—Public Participation in Digitization of Natural History Collections Hits its Stride
Austin Mast, Associate Professor, Department of Biological Science, Florida State University

11:00: Time to Grow a Pair: Institutional Leadership, Taxonomy and Natural History
Quentin Wheeler, President, College of Environmental Science and Forestry, State University of New York

11:30: Building a Networked National Community for Collections
Robert Gropp, Interim Co-Executive Director, AIBS, and Public Policy Office, NSC Alliance, Washington, DC

Information about the session and the broader program is available from the conference website at https://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/spnhc2015/home/ [5].

iDigBio @ SPNHC 2015

Be sure to check out all of the iDigBio events at SPNHC 2015:

• SPNHC Plenary Session [6]
  • Log in on Tue (8 AM EDT) to listen: http://idigbio.adobeconnect.com/spnhc2015 [4]
• Specimens Full Circle: Collection to Digitization to Data Use Workshop [7]
  • Log in Wed (830 AM EDT) and Thu (830 AM EDT) to listen: http://idigbio.adobeconnect.com/spnhc2015sfc [8]
• iDigBio Small Collections Network Workshop [9]
  • Log in Thu (8 AM EDT) to listen: http://idigbio.adobeconnect.com/scnet [10]
• SPNHC DEMO Camp (sponsored by iDigBio)
  • Log in on Thu (1:30 pm EDT) to listen: http://idigbio.adobeconnect.com/democamp2015 [11]
• Special Interest Group "TCN Coffee Klatch" [12]
• and... come visit us in the iDigBio Booth to learn more about
  • iDigBio
  • More than 28,000,000 specimens and lots of images too!
  • Job Opportunities
  • Find out more about WeDigBio [13]
  • Discover how you can help the GBIF Task Force on Accelerating the Discovery of Biodiversity Collections Data [14]
  • What's coming up next at iDigBio and give us your input and feedback for the future of our collections!