TORCH VIII and iDigBio Workshop

This wiki provides resources for the TORCH VIII + iDigBio Workshop at Sul Ross State University in Alpine, TX, May 23-24, 2014. TORCH is the NSF funded program to support the CSBR: Texas Oklahoma Regional Consortia of Herbaria. iDigBio was invited to give a one-day workshop. Deb Paul and Joanna McCaffrey are attending.

Logistics

TORCH’s 2014 meeting will be held at Sul Ross State University in Alpine, TX, May 23-24 (Memorial Day Weekend). Three activities are planned:

1. Friday May 23 there will be an opportunity for a botanically exciting field trip to Livermore Ranch,
2. Friday evening we will hold the TORCH business meeting / curators’ meeting, and
3. Saturday May 24 there will be an all-day workshop led by Deb Paul from iDigBio on delivering your herbarium’s data to the national iDigBio Portal. Also, this year we are again offering TORCH workshop student travel awards.

Inexpensive lodging will be available at the Sul Ross dormitories.

• Fieldtrip: The May 23 fieldtrip to Livermore Ranch (http://livermoreranchtx.com/) in the Davis Mountains is optional and will probably incur an extra fee, amount still TBD. Those who wish to go will need to register separately for the fieldtrip and plan to arrive Thursday afternoon or evening and spend the night at Sul Ross, as we will depart early in the morning Friday. We will return to Sul Ross in the early afternoon.

• TORCH Business Meeting/Curators’ Meeting: This will be held the late afternoon / evening of Friday May 23, likely starting at 5pm with a mixer, and followed by a group dinner out in Alpine, place TBD. Registration will be required for attendance, and there will be a cost for attending the dinner (price TBD), but the meeting is open to all. Those who are not participating in the Saturday workshop are free to depart following this meeting, though you will have the opportunity to register to stay in the Sul Ross dorms until Sunday morning if you wish to spend more time in the area.

• The iDigBio Workshop is intended for those who are actively digitizing, or soon plan to, or who have already digitized their collections and wish to make their data available to the iDigBio Portal. The iDigBio Workshop (9am-5pm Saturday May 24) has a limited capacity for 25 curators and 5 students. Those who wish to attend this workshop should e-mail both Amanda Neill & Wayne Elisens as soon as possible to have their names put on the participant list. Workshop participants will receive travel & registration reimbursement not to exceed $400 (with travel receipts and/or mileage documentation) for their attendance, thanks to some residual funds from the NSF CSBR grant that supported the 2011 and 2012 TORCH workshops. Unfortunately these funds are limited and restricted in their purpose, and reimbursement is only available to the 30 workshop participants.

• Student Travel Awards: Once again, we are looking for five undergraduate or graduate students associated with TX-OK herbaria who would benefit from attending this workshop. If you know such a student, please let them know they should start preparing a letter about why they want to attend the iDigBio Workshop, and they should request a letter of recommendation from their advisor OR the curator of the collection with which they are associated. These should be sent to both Amanda Neill & Wayne Elisens. The deadline for this competitive student travel award (travel & registration reimbursement not to exceed $400) will be FRIDAY APRIL 4.

We will follow up as soon as possible with more details and registration materials. Please get your names to Amanda and Wayne ASAP if you are interested in attending the Saturday iDigBio workshop.

Registration and Information

• Registration
• Information packet

Agenda

Proposed Agenda for TORCH VII + iDigBio Workshop, Saturday May 24 (Sul Ross State University, Alpine TX)

• 8:00 a.m. Continental breakfast provided
• 9:00 a.m. Welcome (Wayne & Amanda)
• 9:15 a.m. Workshop Goals & Logistics (Amanda, Martin & Deb)
• 9:30 a.m. Participant self-introduction
• 9:45 a.m. Introduction to iDigBio (Deb)
• 10:00 a.m. Overview of iDigBio Resources/ Website/ Wikis/ Listservs/ TCNs/ Portal (Deb)

• 10:30 a.m. Coffee break

• 11:00 a.m. Herbarium digitization projects: lightning round presentations (~10 min each?) (TORCH member herbaria)

• 12:00 p.m. Lunch provided

• 1:00 p.m. Herbarium digitization protocols & workflows (for flat sheets and packets—from DROID I) (Amanda, Tiana & Deb)
• 1:30 p.m. Imaging equipment & standards (Jason, Tiana & Joanna)
• 2:00 p.m. Data standards & delivering your data to the iDigBio Portal (Joanna)

• 2:30 p.m. Coffee break

• 3:00 p.m. Data extraction & identifiers (Deb)
• 3:30 p.m. Group exploration of the iDigBio Portal (Joanna & Deb)
• 4:00 p.m. Q&A, Wrap-up
• 5:00 p.m. End of formal workshop

Presentations

• Imaging equipment and guidelines for herbaria (McCaffrey)
• Data standards for iDigBio's portal (McCaffrey)
• How to submit data to iDigBio (McCaffrey)

Related Articles and Papers

• Digitization Resources
  • Workflow and Protocols
  • Imaging Documents and Resources
• iDigBio Imaging Equipment Recommendations (shopping list)
• Beginner’s Guide to Digital Imaging - Glossary
• Policy on Acceptable Formats for iDigBio-hosted Images