iDigBio, the National Resource for Advancing Digitization of Biodiversity Collections, is pleased to announce a Specimen Digitization Tools and Practices Workshop to be held 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 will include discussions and presentations of the following:
- New perspectives on digitization
- Hands-on presentations of production-version tools
- Presentations of ad hoc innovations in digitization
- Discussions
The workshop 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.
Open registration for the workshop is available through June 15, 2012. Those interested are encouraged to visit the open registration page for details.
Applications are now closed for workshop participant reimbursement. Through a competitive application process, iDigBio has selected 25 participants for partial reimbursement to attend the workshop. As part of their application, these participants described: (1) the status of digitization of biological or paleontological specimens at their institution (including total number of specimens and percent databased, imaged, and georeferenced), (2) their role in digitization of biological or paleontological specimens at the institution, and (3) their degree of interest in presenting a short talk (5-10 minutes) related to experiences with digitization.
In addition to the workshop, iDigBio has also organized a symposium entitled “Building a High-Resolution, Specimen-Based Picture of Life: Possibilities and Challenges” for the Botany 2012 conference. It will be held on the afternoon of Wednesday, July 11. More details on the symposium will be posted on the conference website (http://www.2012.botanyconference.org/).
