BCoN Report: Extending U.S. Biodiversity Collections to Promote Research and Education
I. Executive Summary
Reports
SPNHC2015 Symposium: Specimens Full Circle: Collection to Digitization to Data Use
An overview. from Deb Paul, Dena Smith, and Vlad Blagoderov
Summary.
A New Report of Recommendations for DNA Banking
The use of sequencing and other molecular data now plays a critical role in the majority of research across the fields of systematics, ecology, and evolutionary biology. In addition, DNA barcoding offers an efficient way to identify specimens for large efforts like biodiversity inventory projects or biological resource management.
Public Participation in Digitization of Biodiversity Specimens Workshop Report
iDigBio’s Public Participation in Digitization of Biodiversity Specimens Workshop was held on September 28-29 in Gainesville, FL.
Topics included the role of citizen science, ways to engage the public in digitization, methods to build public participant virtual communities, and an overview of biodiversity informatics software to facilitate public participation. Visit the workshop wiki page for links to the final agenda, the GoogleDoc, and the presentations.
Paleocollections Digitization Workshop Report
Bruce MacFadden reports on the recent Paleocollections Digitization Workshop hosted by iDigBio and FLMNH. The workshop was held to assess the status and future of digitized collections within the paleontological community. Presentations, discussions and breakout sessions focused on three themes: 1) tools, datapases and portals, 2) digitization and workflows, and 3) research applications and Grand Challenges.
InvertNet Digitization Workshop Report
The InvertNet TCN reports on the details and accomplishments of the InvertNet Spring Workshop, which was held at University of Illinois/Illinois Natural History Survey. Presentations and breakout groups covered topics including progress in digitizing collections, information on current database platforms, and public outreach and educational activities. Hands-on sessions afforded an opportunity for participants to learn about different software and hardware tools related to digitization workflows.
