We, the symposium conveners Elspeth Haston (RBGE), Elizabeth Ellwood (iDigBio), and Deborah Paul (iDigBio) were thrilled (gulp!) when an originally-proposed half-day symposium turned into a full-day symposium at SPNHC 2014. The topic? - Progress in the Digitisation of Natural History Collections.
“Given increasing rates of habitat loss and global change, we believe that responsibly collecting voucher specimens and associated data and openly sharing this knowledge (for example, through GBIF, iDigBio, and VertNet) are more necessary today than ever before.”
By Chelsea Fowler
SHORT COURSE: Basics of CT Data Acquisition, Visualization, and Analysis
DATE: 22-26 February 2015 (22 and 26 are travel days)
by Deb Paul (on Twitter @idbdeb)
Have you used Specify? Or, are you looking for an easy way to install and try this collection management software?
guest blog by Talia Karim (University of Colorado) and Una Farrell (University of Kansas)
by Deb Paul, Joanna McCaffrey, Kevin Love
by Abigail Hollingsworth
Full-Day Symposium (Thursday June 26, 2014) at the SPNHC 2014 Annual Conference in Cardiff, Wales.
The source materials associated with biodiversity collections often contain the most complete and sometimes most accurate descriptions of localities, collecting events, and even the collection objects themselves of any extant documentation.
iDigBio, Archbold Biological Station, Tall Timbers Research Station (TTRS), and the Godfrey Herbarium at Florida State University (FSU) teamed up the weekend of January 18th and part of the following week to image Archbold’s entire herbarium collection. Gil Nelson and Joanna McCaffrey hauled a carload of contributed technology, including camera stations and equipment provided by TTRS and FSU as well as iDigBio’s new OR Technologies light box to the south-central Florida field station for the event.
By Max Paris Environment Unit, CBC News Posted: Jan 05, 2014 9:00 PM ET Last Updated: Jan 05, 2014 12:21 PM ET
Any doubt about the importance of small herbaria or the enthusiasm of their curators was certainly dispelled at the recent Mobilizing Small Herbaria workshop held at Florida State University the week of December 9th. Co-sponsored by iDigBio, the Robert K. Godfrey Herbarium at Florida State, the North American Network of Small Herbaria, and the Small Collections Network (SCNet), the event brought together about 30 collections professionals from 25 institutions representing 16 states.
More than 60 paleontologists representing 41 institutions assembled in New Haven, CT the week of September 23rd, 2013 to share ideas, protocols, preferences, and strategies. This was iDigBio’s most populous workshop to date, with an assortment of excellent presentations and ample opportunities for rich discussion.
There was no dearth of enthusiasm or expertise at the recent Fluid-preserved Arthropod and Microscopic Slide Imaging workshop held at the University of Michigan September 16-18, 2013. For those whose interests span the gamut of cameras, lenses, microscopes, and the myriad gadgets and creative solutions that make it possible to capture images of difficult subjects, this workshop was the place to be.
The expansive scope of iDigBio’s activities places it in the forefront of national and international digitization and data aggregation efforts. Recognizing the importance of its numerous international partners and encouraged by the NSF to expand international collaborations, iDigBio accepted an invitation to join a digitization symposium featured at the 12th Pacific Science Inter-Congress held at the University of the South Pacific in Suva, Fiji, and to follow the symposium with a digitization workshop for the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), in Canberra, Australia.
Demo Camp live demonstrations are a highlight of the annual SPNHC conferences. This year, iDigBio took this great opportunity to show the natural history collections community all we've accomplished in two years’ time. iDigBio Principal Investigator, Pam Soltis, stepped up to show off the iDigBio Data and Image Portal.
The Biodiversity Institute at University of Kansas, iDigBio, and the Specify Software team are pleased to co-sponsor a 5-day Specify 6 workshop to be held the week of August 12-16, 2013 in Lawrence, KS. This is a "progressive workshop," beginning with Specify 6 installation and basics and progressing through advanced topics. Each participant will attend up to 3 consecutive days, depending on need and experience with Specify. The success of this workshop may lead to similar workshops in the future.
Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH) turned out to be the perfect venue for iDigBio’s April 23–25 (2013) Dried Insect Digitization workshop. Overlooking Grant Park and the Chicago lakefront, FMNH provided an exceptionally attractive and hospitable environment with outstanding amenities. About 50 entomologists and digitization professionals from the U.S., Australia, and the United Kingdom attended, bringing together a diverse assemblage of knowledge and skill to address the complex job of digitizing pinned insect collections.
Digitization was a hot topic at the 2013 Association of Southeastern Biologists’ (ASB) meeting held in Charleston, West Virginia the week of April 10. Well before the beginning of the ASB–iDigBio-sponsored digitization symposium and workshop, several conference goers had already offered important papers outlining strategies and successes in digitizing small herbaria and incorporating digitization into biodiversity field research.
iDigBio Announces the Second Train-the-Trainers Georeferencing Workshop (TTT #2)
UPDATE: Participants Selected, GWG Second Train the Trainers Workshop Agenda
NOTE: AdobeConnect set up for REMOTE participation. Join us!
Save the Date Now and Join us remotely! See you August 12th - August 16th.
Application submission deadline was Thursday May 9th, 2013.
iDigBio, the National Science Foundation’s national HUB for Advancing Digitization of Biological Collections (ADBC), in collaboration with the University of Michigan's Museum of Zoology, is pleased to announce the fifth in a series of preparation-specific workshops focusing on biological collections digitization. The workshop announced here focuses on imaging techniques for fluid-preserved invertebrates and microscopic slides.
iDigBio, in collaboration with Yale Peabody Museum, is pleased to announce the fourth in a series of preparation-specific workshops focusing on organizing, launching, maintaining, and/or enhancing a collections digitization program. This new workshop will focus on digitizing paleontology collections, including invertebrates, vertebrates, and plants.
