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Digitization

Entomologists Gather for Insect Digitization Workshop in Chicago

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.

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Whole-drawer imaging

Whole-drawer digitization

ASB–iDigBio Digitization Symposium and Workshop Report: An Inspiring Event

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.

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New York Botanical Garden

iDigBio Announces the Second Train-the-Trainers Georeferencing Workshop (TTT #2)

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.

Application via Google Form: http://tinyurl.com/gwgttt2app

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Fluid-preserved Invertebrate Imaging Workshop Opportunity

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.

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Digitization tasks

iDigBio and Yale Peabody Museum Announce Paleontology Digitization Workshop

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.

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Wet Collections Digitization Workshop Report

When iDigBio announced an upcoming wet collections digitization workshop to be held in cooperation with the Biodiversity Institute at the University of Kansas, we had no idea what to expect. As it turns out, we must have hit a nerve. By the close of the application period, well over 50 people had responded - far exceeding our expectations.

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Wet collections

Pre-digitization curation

iDigBio 2012 Visiting Scholar: Organizing, Executing and Utilizing a Digitized Regional Herbarium

UPDATE: A recording of this seminar is available here: https://www.idigbio.org/content/organizing-executing-and-utilizing-digitized-regional-herbarium

IDIGBIO 2012 VISITING SCHOLAR: ORGANIZING, EXECUTING AND UTILIZING A DIGITIZED REGIONAL HERBARIUM

Dr. Anna K. Monfils, Central Michigan University

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Hackathon and iConference Update Part II

iDigBio Augmenting OCR Working Group provides a detailed update on the recent Hackathon and presentations at iConference 2013, held in Forth Worth, TX, February 12-15.

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Optical character recognition

Natural language processing

Machine learning

Information science

ASB Digitization Symposium and Workshop

The Association of Southeastern Biologists (ASB), in partnership with iDigBio, is pleased to announce a symposium and workshop that focus on workflows in the digitization of biological collections to be held at our annual meeting in Charleston, West Virginia, in April 2013.

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Congratulations to Dr. Anna K. Monfils: iDigBio Visiting Scholar

Please join iDigBio in congratulating Dr. Anna Monfils on her selection as our 2012 Visiting Scholar. Anna is an Associate Professor at Central Michigan University and Director of the Central Michigan University Herbarium.

Dr. Monfils' winning proposal includes building generalized, web-deliverable specimen databasing protocols, designing web-based teaching activities focused on databasing, and organizing a workshop aimed at professional botanists, students and citizen scientists from throughout Michigan.

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iDigBio Blitz at iConference 2013!

iDigBio Blitz at iConference 2013

February 12-15th, Forth Worth, Texas

The iDigBio Augmenting Optical Recognition Working Group (AOCR wg) is headed to iConference 2013 in Fort Worth, Texas.

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Machine learning

IDigBio Announces Dried Insect Digitization Workshop April 24-25, 2013

Pinned Insect Drawer iDigBio is pleased to announce the third in a series of preparation-specific workshops focusing on organizing, launching, maintaining, and/or enhancing a biological collections digitization program. This workshop will focus on digitization of dried insect specimens, stored in drawers and trays, either pinned or in packets. The workshop will be held at The Field Museum, Chicago, Illinois April 24–25, 2013. We have funding to support travel and per diem for 24 participants. April 23 and 26 will be travel days, with a welcoming reception early evening, April 23. Those desiring to attend this workshop should complete the online application no later than February 15, 2013. For more information, contact Gil Nelson.(gnelson@bio.fsu.edu).

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New iDigBio Workshop Opportunity: Digitizing Specimens in Wet Collections, March 5–6, 2013

iDigBio is pleased to announce the second in a series of preparation-specific workshops focusing on organizing, launching, maintaining, and enhancing a biological collections digitization program. This new workshop will focus on digitization of wet collections, to include specimen label databasing, specimen imaging, ledger and field book imaging, and digitization of legacy objects such as X-rays, CT scans, and 35mm slides.

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Wet collections

Fluid collections

Aquatic insects

Digitization tasks

Workflow Modules and Task Lists

One outgrowth of the DROID (Developing Robust Object-to-Image-to-Data) workflow workshop held in May 2012 was the establishment of a series of working groups, each focused on workflow modules and tasks for various preparation types. The first of these groups, informally called the Flat Sheets and Packets Working Group, was charged with fleshing out task lists for digitizing vascular and non-vascular plant collections. The second group, Pinned Specimens in Trays and Drawers, is investing its time developing modules to support effective entomological digitization workflows. Other preservation types will follow, concluding with the development of an overall project management module designed to provide guidance for developing and managing digitization projects across disciplines and preservation types.

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Workflow modules

Global Plants Initiative

Data enrichment

Pre-digitization curation

Digitization tasks

iDigBio Augmenting OCR October 2012 Workshop & February 2013 Hackathon

Seeking participants for “iDigBio Augmenting OCR” workshop, October 1-2

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Optical character recognition

Machine language processing

Natural language processing

Seeking Effective Efficient Digitization - ZooKeys Publishes iDigBio's 5 Task Clusters

All of us at iDigBio are excited to announce the publication of Five Task Clusters that Enable Efficient and Effective Digitization of Biodiversity Collections in a ZooKeys 209:19-45 (2012) Special Issue No specimen left behind: mass digitization of natural history collections. We look forward to your comments...

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Effective practices

Biodiversity informatics

Digitization Workflows

Efficient and effective workflows are at the heart of successful biological and paleontological collections digitization. Much work has been done with developing workflows and protocols at the museum and collections level, but few of these workflows have been documented or made available to the larger collections community. iDigBio, through its Documentation pages, is establishing an online repository for sharing existing customized workflows from as many collection types and institutions as possible, an idea that stems largely from the Developing Robust Object-to-Image-to-Data (DROID) workshop held May 30-31, 2012. We have assembled an initial set of workflows, including selected examples from the DROID workshop, as well as those developed by iDigBio staff. Here we offer the beginnings of the repository and encourage those in the community to both discuss the workflows via the forum links, and to contribute to this resource by adding new workflows and updating existing workflows.

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Digitization Workflow Workshop Report

Members of the collections community gather in Gainesville, FL to produce optimized specimen digitization workflows at the Developing Robust Object-to-Image-to-Data (DROID) Workshop. Tremendous participant insight holds the promise for informative documentation that will benefit all collections conducting or initiating digitization activities.

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Slide-Scanning Protocol

Protocols for Slide-Scanning/Digitization of Standard Microscope Slides

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iDigBio Botany 2012 Digitization Workshop - Open Registration

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 will be held from 8:00 AM – 5:30 PM on Thursday, July 12, the day after the conference at the conference facility. Note: you do NOT have to attend the conference to attend the workshop.

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Workshop for Developing Robust Object to Image to Data (DROID) Workflows

It is our pleasure to announce the Developing Robust Object to Image to Data Workflows (DROID) Workshop to be held at the University of Florida in Gainesville, FL. The workshop is designed to identify existing optimal digitization workflows, as well as process and technology gaps that must be bridged in order to achieve the scope of digitization required to meet the Grand Challenge. The workshop is co-sponsored by Integrated Digitized Biocollections (iDigBio) and Software Infrastructure for Sustained Innovation (S2I2). It will be held on May 30th and May 31st. Additional details may be obtained from the workshop overview.

Up to five participant slots are available for applicants. Accepted participants will be provided with travel, lodging and meals to attend the workshop.

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Streamlining Collaborative Digitization

Streamlining Collaborative Digitization: How to order and install multiple digitization work stations

By Melissa Tulig and Kimberly Watson

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Congratulations to Dr. Anna K. Monfils, iDigBio's 2012 Visiting Scholar

Please join iDigBio in congratulating Dr. Anna Monfils on her selection as our 2012 Visiting Scholar. Anna is an Associate Professor at Central Michigan University and Director of the Central Michigan University Herbarium.

Dr. Monfils' winning proposal includes building generalized, web-deliverable specimen databasing protocols, designing web-based teaching activities focused on databasing, and organizing a workshop aimed at professional botanists, students and citizen scientists from throughout Michigan.

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Workshop and Symposium at Botany 2012

It is our pleasure to announce the Specimen Digitization Tools and Practices Workshop at the Botany 2012 Conference. The workshop is designed to 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 Biological Collections. It will be held from 8:00AM – 5:00PM on Thursday, July 12, the day after the conference at the conference facility. A dinner for workshop participants will follow.

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AMNH and NYBG (Digitization Workflow)

Studying Digitization and Databasing Workflows

Who & What & Why:
iDigBio staff members, Gil Nelson and Deborah Paul are excited about upcoming visits to a series of natural history museums with current digitization projects in process. To illuminate what imaging and data-basing techniques and strategies are currently in use and might represent a possible better practice, they are collecting data about and videos of data-basing in progress.

Where & When:
American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) and New York Botanical Garden (NYBG)

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Harvard Museum of Natural History, Museum of Comparative Zoology (Digitization Workflow)

Studying Digitization and Databasing Workflows

Who & What & Why:
iDigBio staff members, Gil Nelson and Deborah Paul are excited about upcoming visits to a series of natural history museums with current digitization projects in process. To illuminate what imaging and data-basing techniques and strategies are currently in use and might represent a possible better practice, they are collecting data about and videos of data-basing in progress.

Where & When:
Harvard Museum of Natural History, Museum of Comparative Zoology

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Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History (Digitization Workflow)

Studying Digitization and Databasing Workflows

Who & What & Why:
iDigBio staff members, Gil Nelson and Deborah Paul are excited about upcoming visits to a series of natural history museums with current digitization projects in process. To illuminate what imaging and data-basing techniques and strategies are currently in use and might represent a possible better practice, they are collecting data about and videos of data-basing in progress.

Where & When:
Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, Mon - Tue January 16th - 17th

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Digitizing Biological Collections: Global Issues and Decision Points

Imaging and databasing a biological collection seems like a straightforward task: procure the specimens, extract the data, take the image, and serve the image and data on the internet. However, in most cases there are numerous preliminary global issues and decision points to be resolved before actual imaging and data extraction can begin.

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SERNEC Georeferencing Workshop

Hosted by: Southeast Regional Network of Expertise and Collections (SERNEC) 

When: Friday to Sunday, January 27 – 29th 2012:  Friday 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM,  Saturday 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM,  Sunday 9:00 AM – 2:00 PM

Where: Geographic Information Science

Laboratory, Rankin Science Building, Appalachian State University, Boone North Carolina.

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