| Abstract | iDigBio serves as the National Science Foundation’s national resource and coordinating center for the digitization of biodiversity specimens deposited in natural history museums and academic collections, and the mobilization of biodiversity data for use by scientists, environmental educators, enthusiasts, and the general public. Launched in 2011 as a collaboration between the University of Florida and Florida State University, iDigBio employs approximately 30 staff, ranging from professional biologists and computer scientists to post-doctoral associates and graduate students. In this session we provide an overview of biodiversity specimen digitization and data mobilization, how digitized data benefits the natural sciences, the strategies iDigBio and its 300 collaborating institutions use in their work, the resources iDigBio makes available to biologists, ecologists, environment educators, and the general public, and an example of how one Iowa-based ADBC project is utilizing digitization funding to make specimen data more widely available. |
