Finding Field Station Data Workshop

This wiki provides information about the virtual mini-workshop Finding Field Station Data for Research Use. Link to this wiki using bit.ly/obfs-idigbio-2020.

General Information

When: September 29, 2020 from 1:00-3:00 PM Eastern
Where: Zoom
Cost: Free
Organizers: Erica Krimmel, Gil Nelson, Cat Chapman, David Jennings, Molly Phillips
Registration (required): https://ufl.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0qf--hpzMqHtKxz7apfRhYbZF415bGXYRU

This workshop will follow iDigBio's Code of Conduct.

Goals & Outcomes

The discovery and use of digital field station data for place-based biodiversity research as well as species discovery within a station’s boundaries and service area are essential contributions. Although many field stations curate their own biological collections, at least some of which have been digitized and made available online, field stations have traditionally served as important specimen collecting localities for a variety of researchers across taxonomies, resulting in a potential plethora of station-relevant digital data curated by non-station universities and museums. The rapidly expanding online availability of these data, motivated in large part by the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Advancing Digitization of Biodiversity Collections program, has made these data readily available to station scientists. As the U.S. center for enabling and facilitating specimen data digitization and mobilization, iDigBio’s portal (http://portal.idigbio.org/) serves approximately 124 million transcribed specimen records and 35 million associated media records. This virtual mini-workshop will teach participants how to find and download records that are relevant to a specific field station and its surroundings, as well as how these records might be used to augment existing station data.

Logistics

Participation is free but registration is required. Workshop will be held on Zoom from 1-3pm Eastern on September 29, 2020. Participants will receive the Zoom link when they register.

  • Recording policy: By attending iDigBio’s online events, you accept that the event will be recorded and posted for later asynchronous viewing.
  • We recommend using the desktop client for Zoom (learn more here) vs. Zoom in your browser.
  • Having dual monitors will make it easier for you to follow along with the workshop demos, but is not necessary.
  • Tips for being a participant in Zoom: https://bit.ly/2wV6j2v
  • Post-workshop feedback survey for participants

Agenda

1:00 PM EDT Workshop introduction (Gil Nelson)
1:05 PM EDT Overview of the iDigBio Portal (Erica Krimmel)
Searching by geospatial bounding box
1:15 PM EDT Demo (Gil Nelson)
1:20 PM EDT Discovery time in Zoom breakout rooms
Searching by text locality string
1:35 PM EDT Demo (Cat Chapman)
1:40 PM EDT Discovery time in Zoom breakout rooms
break from 1:55 - 2:05
Searching by other facets of the data
2:05 PM EDT Demo (Molly Phillips)
2:10 PM EDT Discovery time in Zoom breakout rooms
Searching programmatically
2:25 PM EDT Demo 4: Search via the API (Erica Krimmel)
Workshop wrap-up
2:35 PM EDT How to get data to iDigBio (Cat Chapman)
2:45 PM EDT Additional resources, remaining Q&A, discussion

Links for searches used in demos

Searching by geospatial bounding box

Searching by text locality string

Searching by other facets of the data

Searching programmatically

Reports and Resources