IDigBio Workshops

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Overview

This page contains links to materials from iDigBio workshops, conferences, and symposia. Additional materials may be displayed via other Wikis or external publications, which may be included below.

Proposals for new workshops, conferences, or symposia should be submitted here: https://www.idigbio.org/content/looking-ways-participate

Recording Policy

Rationale

In order to meet NSF expectations to offer services indiscriminately to all biodiversity collections professionals, iDigBio endeavors to provide video streaming and/or recording of its events, including, but not limited to, workshops, webinars, conferences, and symposia. iDigBio also prefers that online event speakers grant permission to be recorded and to post a copy of the recording of their presentation on the IDigBio conference website for asynchronous viewing by registered participants.

Policy

  • By registering for an iDigBio online event, you accept that all or part of its proceedings may be recorded and posted on the conference agenda for asynchronous viewing.
  • By attending iDigBio’s online events, you accept that the event will be recorded and posted for later asynchronous viewing.

Workshop Documentation

Calendar Year 2020

Date Workshop Name (Calendar Announcement) Brief Summary Links
09/29/2020 - 09/29/2020 Finding Field Station Data for Research Use: A virtual mini-workshop 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 25 million associated images. 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.
08/02/2020 - 08/07/2020 iDigBio and Collaborations at Ecologicial Society of America 2020 For 2020, plans are underway to once again provide a joint Data Help Desk, participate in the Open Science Section at ESA, and make major contributions to Career Central that will be featured in ESA's conference promotional activities. In addition, some of us will be presenting in ESA Special Sessions and Ignite Sessions. iDigBio works collaboratively with other NSF-funded programs to share and facilitate broader biocollections data use and provide access to data and computational literacy skills and knowledge needed to support FAIR and reproducible research.
06/08/2020 - 06/12/2020 SPNHC and ICOMNATHIST Virtual Conference 2020 iDigBio events at SPNHC and ICOMNATHIST Virtual Conference 2020 included an Education Share Fair designed and lead by Molly Phillips (iDigBio's Education Outreach Diversity Inclusion Coordinator) and a symposium focusing on collections management/software/leadership for the future titled: Envisioning Collections Management for the Evolving Biodiversity Data Lifecycle. The role of collections management in the biodiversity data lifecycle has been dramatically affected by worldwide specimen digitization programs. Institutions looking to support a visionary future for collections-based biodiversity data need to cultivate a culture of lifelong learning as the expectations of collections management evolve. This symposium highligts key challenges and opportunities involved in designing and driving such a vision that can address impending global challenges.
04/27/2020 - 04/29/2020 Georeferencing for Paleo: Refreshing the approach to fossil localities As the paleo collections community wraps up several TCNs we recognize that a significant amount of digitization work remains to be done and that georeferencing is one of the next big roadblocks. Across all collection types, there are major issues with the quality of georeference data currently available on biodiversity data aggregators such as iDigBio and GBIF. For paleo collections, there are additional issues related to applying existing georeferencing workflows in the paleontological context, as well as to sharing georeference data publicly. This workshop will take advantage of the momentum catalyzed by ADBC funding in the paleontological collections community to address critical issues related to georeferencing workflows and georeferencing data quality. This workshop transitioned from an in-person to a virtual event approximately one month prior to – please see workshop report for more details.
03/03/2020 - 03/04/2020 Fluid-preserved Specimen Imaging Workshop The goal of this workshop was to define the course forward for expanding and enhancing the use of fluid-preserved specimen images across all domains.
02/24/2020 - 02/25/2020 Terrestrial Parasite Tracker Workshop: Best Practices and Standardization of Digital Data Capture The goal of this workshop was to focus on project management, best practices, and workflow development for members of the TPT TCN. The developers of TPT's primary imaging system (i.e., Macroscopic Solutions) additionally provided hands-on image training demonstrations using Macropod Systems.
02/21/2020 - 02/21/2020 iDigTRIO Biological Sciences Conference and Fair Explore opportunities in biology and paleontology at the iDigTRIO conference. This is a FREE one day conference with a pre-event shadowing day and reception (EODI).
01/31/2020 - 02/01/2020 SciComm 101 Workshop Attendees in this workshop will work to enhance existing science communication skills and develop new tools for sharing your research (EODI).
01/23/2020 - 01/24/2020 Integrating Institutional Archives with Disciplinary Web Repositories Workshop The goal of this invitation only workshop is to articulate common practices and potential workflows for sustainable integration between museums, institutional repositories, and third party domain-specialized (disciplinary) repositories.

Calendar Year 2019

Date Workshop Name (Calendar Announcement) Brief Summary Links
11/08/2019 - 11/09/2019 Broadening Participation in the Biological Sciences: New Mexico This is the third Broadening Diversity workshop that is part of a western-US workshop series with a goal to introduce undergraduate students, especially those in underrepresented populations, to museum and biodiversity science careers (EODI).
10/31/2019 - 11/02/2019 SACNAS 2019 SACNAS 2019- The National Diversity in STEM Conference was held October 31 - November 2, 2019 in Honolulu, Hawai'i, at the Hawai’i Convention Center. SACNAS is the “largest multidisciplinary and multicultural STEM diversity event in the country.” The 2019 event was a 3-day conference which focused on activities to equip, empower, and energize participants for their academic and professional paths in STEM. SACNAS has been around for 45 years, but this was the first time iDigBio as a project has participated (EODI).
10/22/2019 - 10/25/2019 Biodiversity Next Conference
International Alignment Symposium
 (Paraphrased from abstract). A number of recent initiatives, often working at a country or continental level, are making huge strides in regional digitisation, aggregation and visualisation of collections data. Often the intellectual case, methodologies, organisational processes and impact of these programmes are very similar, differing only where regional needs demand a difference in priorities. This suggests that the geo-/bio-diversity informatics community is driving toward a common vision for community activities, and provides the means for less-resourced regions to highlight needs for local investment. But without international coordination, we risk duplicating effort, and subsequently struggle to build upon each other’s work. See Biodiversity Next Symposium (full abstract): Increasing Opportunities to Align Data Initiatives for Bio/Geo Collections
  • Symposium Wiki
  • Symposium Blog Post
10/22/2019 - 10/25/2019 Biodiversity Next Conference
Digitisation Next Symposium
 (Paraphrased from abstract). With so many collections embracing the challenges of digitisation, there is a constant need to share progress and learn from each other. This symposium aims to showcase and discuss some key areas of development, including such topics as: artificial intelligence and machine learning, automated data extraction, new data capture workflows, barcodes for automated data capture, lessons learned from crowdsourcing data transcription, measuring cost and impact of collections digitisation to support data-driven decision making - policy - and infrastructure investment, focus on organizational cultural change, private collections, more effective dissemination of workflows, and expansion of stakeholders. See Biodiversity Next Symposium (full abstract): Digitisation Next
  • Symposium Wiki
  • Symposium Blog Post
10/22/2019 - 10/25/2019 Biodiversity Next Conference
Developing a Data-Literate Workforce in Biodiversity Science Symposium
 (Paraphrased from abstract). Rapid advances in data science and technology are transforming biodiversity research. The volume and complexity of biodiversity data being generated, their availability via aggregation, and the interdisciplinary nature of modern scientific research are driving the need for new skill sets to address global scientific issues. Central to addressing the needs of the biodiversity research community is identifying a set of core and transferrable data literacy competencies and developing strategies to help develop a data-literate workforce. This symposium looks at models, lessons learned, and standards and skills knowledge needed across the entire community from data creation to data use. See Biodiversity Next Symposium (full abstract): Developing a Data-Literate Workforce in Biodiversity Science Symposium
  • Symposium Wiki
  • Symposium Blog Post
10/01/2019 - 10/03/2019 ADBC Summit 2019 The ninth annual Advancing Digitization of Biodiversity Collections (ADBC) Summit was held October 1-3, 2019, in Gainesville, Florida. The ADBC Summit brought together representatives from Thematic Collections Networks (TCNs), Partners to Existing Networks (PENs), the National Science Foundation (NSF), iDigBio, and other initiatives related to the NSF’s effort to digitize biodiversity collections through the ADBC program. The Summit’s aim was to inspire collaboration and facilitate discussions on shared goals, challenges, and opportunities.
09/22/2019 - 09/25/2019 Geological Society of America Conference (GSA) 2019 The 2019 Geological Society of America Meeting was held in Phoenix, Arizona, September 20-25, 2019. iDigBio participated in the nightly exhibitor hall showcase presented in the Broadening Representation in Geology Symposium (EODI).
08/11/2019 - 08/16/2019 Data Help Desk at ESA 2019 For the second year ecological data repositories and data specialists will collaborate at the Ecological Society of America's annual meeting to add a Data Help Desk (DHD) to the Poster/Exhibition Hall. The Environmental Data Initiative (EDI), iDigBio, Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP), DataONE, GBIF, NEON and Arctic Data Center will each engage participants one-on-one about their questions, comments and concerns about using these data in their discipline and area of research.
07/18/2019 - 07/20/2019 Imaging and Digitization Workshop for Amateur Paleontologists The FOSSIL Project and iDigBio sponsored a three-day workshop focusing on imaging and digitization for amateur paleontologists on July 18-20, 2019 (EODI).
07/15/2019 Using Data Science Skills and Digitized Natural History Collections Data to Investigate Ecological and Evolutionary Principles in Introductory Biology Courses Workshop at Evolution of Data in the Classroom: From Data to Data Science (SW 2019) [From the abstract] In this workshop you'll explore activities, developed by the Biodiversity Literacy in Undergraduate Education (BLUE) RCN-UBE, in which students investigate topics in ecology, evolution, and organismal biology using data from digitized natural history collections. BLUE's goals are to bring together communities of biodiversity, data science, and education specialists to identify core undergraduate biodiversity data competencies and standards and develop effective strategies for sustained integration of biodiversity and data literacy education into the undergraduate biology curriculum. BLUE participants have brought some of these strategies into practice by developing example curriculum materials (EODI).
06/28/2019 07/02/2019 American Society of Mammalogists (ASM) Data Help Desk and Broadening Participation Themed Session The American Society of Mammalogists (ASM) meeting will be held in Washington, DC in June 28-July 2, 2019. In collaboration with the ASM Human Diversity Committee we have been granted a themed session to focus on broadening participation in mammalogy. In addition to the session on broadening participation iDigBio co-hosted the “Data Help Desk.” in collaboration with NEON and VertNet (EODI).
06/25/2019 Digital Resources in Paleontology, Teacher Professional Development Workshop Advancing the Digitization of Biological Collections (ADBC) has allowed museums and smaller collections to become more accessible through online data aggregators and interactive websites. Many of the Thematic Collection Networks within the ADBC community have produced K-12 educational material as a product of their digitization efforts. The paleo-themed programs in ADBC, along with several other outside initiatives have come together to organize a one-day workshop in association with the 2019 North American Paleontological Convention (NAPC) on June 25, 2019 (EODI).
06/10/2019 - 06/12/2019 3rd Annual Digital Data Conference Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History in collaborated with iDigBio of the Florida Museum of Natural History, the Natural Science Collections Alliance, and Ecological Society of America to host the third annual Digital Data in Biodiversity Research conference, Methods, Protocols, and Analytical Tools for Specimen-based Research, in the Biological Sciences at Yale University, New Haven, CT.
06/12/2019 Workshop: Tools and Best Practices for Biodiversity Data Science: A Data Carpentries Introduction with Python at 3rd Annual Digital Data Conference The Carpentries (comprised of Data Carpentry, Library Carpentry, and Software Carpentry) is a project whose mission is to teach foundational computational and data science skills to researchers and others who create, manage, and use data. Specifically, Data Carpentry lessons are designed to be picked up by learners who do not have any previous programming experience. Data Carpentry workshops are typically organized in a 2-day format, but we will compress the lessons in this workshop to 1 day to focus on learning Python and Jupyter notebooks to work with data files in a reproducible manner. Before covering Python, we will go through a lesson using Excel to learn about the "tidy data" format, and best practices for working with tabular data files. We will also spend some time discussing community-building around the Carpentries, and how we can partner together to build biodiversity data science literacy at our organizations.
05/31/2019 SPNHC 2019 Educational Materials Share Fair iDigBio and Biodiversity Literacy in Undergraduate Education Network (BLUE) are co-sponsoring the second annual Educational Materials Share Fair session at SPNHC 2019. This session is an opportunity for colleagues to share and get feedback on collections-based education or outreach materials. Materials can be at any stage of development from fledgling ideas to fully vetted materials All are welcome to either share as developers or participate as potential adopters (EODI).
05/25/2019 - 05/31/2019 SCNet Symposium: No Collection Left Behind: Research Contributions of Small Collections SCNet, Biodiversity Collections Network (BCoN), iDigBio, NSCA, and Biodiversity Literacy in Undergraduate Education Network (BLUE) cosponsored the 5th annual SCNet Symposium at SPNHC 2019. The goal of this symposium was to highlight data-driven examples of the contributions small biological collections make to the national digitization initiative and resultant biodiversity research. This symposium discussed small collections in the context of their unique and valuable contributions to digitization, aggregated data and metadata, and downstream research (EODI).
05/25/2019 - 05/31/2019 Collecting Measures of Success Biocollections and collections data facilitate many important activities including research, curation, education, outreach, and policy-development. While the value of collection objects and related data seems obvious for those using them, it is often difficult to gather metrics needed to convey and communicate collections-related activities and their importance. Choosing appropriate, consistent and meaningful metrics, efficiently harvesting values, and being able to visualize success (or issues) in appropriate ways, is challenging and often changing with technological advancements and public perceptions. In this symposium, speakers will share stories and strategies, of metrics readily available, in development, and only just dreamt about. We also plan to encourage those attending to share their metrics stories.
03/21/2019 - 03/23/2019 5th Life Discovery – Doing Science Biology Education Conference (LDC) 5th Life Discovery – Doing Science Biology Education Conference (LDC) March 21-23, 2019, Hilton University of Florida Conference Center, Gainesville, Florida. Conference Theme: Microbiomes to Ecosystems: Evolution and Biodiversity across Scale, Space, and Time (EODI).
03/09/2019 - 03/12/2019 The Digital Future of Entomology - Symposium and Panel at Eastern EntSoc 2019 In this symposium and panel session titled: The Digital Future of Entomology, speakers and panelists seek to share lessons learned, and current trends from digitizing insect collections. Speakers' topics range from historical data uses, fossil amber data, enhanced data dissemination and discovery, automated (deep learning) insect identification using wing images, digitization lessons learned, and worldwide efforts to mobilize collections data and data use.
02/04/2019 - 02/05/2019 DigIn Marine Invertebrate Digitization Workshop In this 2 day workshop, collection personnel from all major and most medium-sized IZ collections in the US and abroad, will share information about their collections and curatorial and digitization workflows. Participants will discuss best practices and consider ways to improve on existing methods to improve efficiency and speed of data mobilization for marine invert collections. Workshop short name #DigIn.
02/01/2019 - 02/02/2019 iDigTRiO Biological Sciences Career Conference & Fair iDigBio and the Office of Academic Support (OAS) and Student Support Services (SSS)/TRIO Program at University of Florida (UF) co-organized a free Biology Career Conference and Fair on February 1-2, 2019 for undergraduate students (EODI).
01/17/2019 - 01/19/2019 Phenology Deep Learning Workshop This workshop focused on exploring such technologies as deep convolutional neural networks (CNN), data protocols and standards for linking trait data to specimen records, tracking phenological synchronization across phyla, and tools for trait measurement and analysis. Effecting taxonomic determination and scoring phenological stage was also a major foci.

Calendar Year 2018

Date Workshop or Symposium Name (Calendar Announcement) Brief Summary Links
11/07/2018 - 11/09/2018 How to publish data and what to do with it a GBIF-sponsored CESP-funded workshop. This workshop aims to give curators, collection managers, students, and everyone willing to share their data on GBIF (or other aggregators like iDigBio and Canadensys) a set of useful tools and methodologies to go from their in-house database to the publication of data on GBIF. We will even go further, and discover how to search and use data published on Canadensys, which is now based on the Atlas of Living Australia framework, and on GBIF. iDigBio is collaborating with Canadensys to present this workshop.
10/01/2018 - 10/03/2018 ADBC Summit 2018 Join the leading researchers and professionals striving to digitize our nation's Natural History Collections! The annual ADBC Summit brings together representatives from TCNs, PENs, NSF, iDigBio, and other initiatives related to the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Advancing Digitization of Biodiversity Collections (ADBC) program. The Summit inspires collaboration and focuses discussions on shared goals, challenges, and opportunities.
09/21/2018 Digitizing and Mobilizing Research Station Collections Data at OBFS 2018 The amount of digital specimen data available to field stations has grown exponentially, and the number of digitized specimens collected in a field station's geographic region but held in museum and academic collections elsewhere, often at great distances from the station, are providing a wealth of easily accessible information and opportunities for discovery. This concurrent session at the OBFS 2018 annual meeting will offer an introduction to the status and availability of digital data and the national digitization effort, followed by a hands-on demonstration of how to search for and potentially use these data in field station research and activities.
08/30/2018 - 8/30/2018 Symposium Challenges Implementing Collections Data Quality Feedback: synthesizing the community experience Much data quality (DQ) feedback is now available to data providers from aggregators of collections specimen and related data. Similarly, transcription centres and crowdsourcing platforms also provide data that must be assessed and often manipulated before uploading to a local database and subsequently published with aggregators. Sharing DQ integration experiences can help reveal risks and opportunities. Discovering others have the same conundrums helps develop a community of belonging and may assist in removing duplication of effort. It is important to leverage the knowledge and experience of those who are currently validating data to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the process. Documenting and classifying these challenges also facilitates motivation and community building by informing those who would tackle these challenges. In this case, talks from aggregators and data providers give all of us a chance to learn from their stories about implementing and integrating DQ feedback.
08/30/2018- 8/30/2018 SPNHC 2018 Educational Materials Share Fair The Biodiversity Literacy in Undergraduate Education Network (BLUE), Ecological Society of America (ESA), and iDigBio are co-sponsoring a new session at the 2018 SPNHC/TDWG meeting entitled the Educational Materials Share Fair to be held on Thursday, August 30, 2018, from 11:00-12:30 NZST in Castle D (40). This is an opportunity for colleagues to share and get feedback on education or outreach materials. Materials can be at any stage of development from fledgling ideas to fully vetted materials. All are welcome to either share as developers or participate as potential adopters.
08/29/2018- 8/29/2018 Symposium: Completing the Data Pipeline: Collections Data Use in Research, Education and Outreach The purpose of this symposium is to highlight the diverse uses of digital collections resources for research, education, and outreach including activities that are currently underway around the globe with special focus on using collections data for: innovative research applications, inspiring outreach initiatives intended for new audiences, and educational resources and programs that are ensuring a new generation of competent collections data users. We anticipate this to be a full day event with up to 20 speakers. We will invite selected speakers to submit abstracts and depend on abstract submissions through the SPNHC abstract submission process.
  • Wiki
  • Workshop Report
08/25/2018- 9/02/2018 SPNHC - TDWG 2018 Joint Mtg Announcement iDigBio will be participating in the first ever joint meeting of SPNHC and TDWG. Details forthcoming.
  • Wiki
  • Workshop Report
07/22/2018 Using Digitized Herbarium Data in Research: Application for Ecology, Phylogentics, and Biogeography In this full-day workshop, we will provide hands-on instruction for novices and advanced users alike. In addition to learning how to use various software packages, we will also discuss the assumptions of the analyses and the interpretations of the results. We will divide into groups based on participants' experience, so novices and advanced users are all welcome. For beginners, we will cover ways to access and download digitized herbarium data (from GBIF, iDigBio, and other aggregators) and prepare data sets for analysis. We will then offer a series of modules on using georeferencing software (GEOLocate) and applying Maxent software to construct ecological niche models and do paleoclimatic modeling. For advanced users, we will provide new, innovative modules for linking specimen data to phylogenetic trees, computing phylogenetic diversity measures, conducting biogeographic analyses, and more. We will cover strategies to extract information from niche models, such as species occupancy in ecological space and niche breadth, and link them to phylogenetic trees to test hypotheses about niche evolution, such as ancestral niche reconstruction. Participants will use new integrative software tools developed by the BiotaPhy Project (www.biotaphy.org) in collaboration with the Lifemapper Project that link occurrence data (through iDigBio), niche models, and ecological statistics calculated from the models, applying these to large trees in a desktop geospatial environment using the QGIS GIS application.
07/09/2018 - 07/11/2018 Drawers, Jars and Databases: Teaching the Hidden Science of Natural History Museums A teacher workshop hosted by North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, iDigBio, and the MicroFungi project about using collections in the classroom. Will take place at North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences with excursions to Prairie Ridge Ecostation and North Carolina State University July9-11, 2018.
06/4/2018- 06/6/2018 Digital Data Conference: Emerging Innovations for Biodiversity Data The Berkeley Natural History Museums, the Berkeley Initiative for Global Change Biology, and iDigBio are pleased to announce the second annual Digital Data in Biodiversity Research Conference, to be held in Berkeley, CA, 4-6 June 2018. The 2018 conference will again encompass the uses of digitized data across all biodiversity disciplines, with special emphasis on digitized specimen data and the potential for "big data" analytics in organismal biology.
05/30/2018 - 06/01/2018 Developing an ontology for insect natural history data At this three-day workshop, we took the first steps toward developing a robust ontology for insect natural history data and natural history observations. We primarily focused on information from insect specimen labels, but we also recognized considerable overlap in content between insect natural history data from labels and insect natural history data from literature sources, which means that much of our work will be easily adaptable to literature-sourced data.
04/06/2018 - 04/07/2018 Broadening Participation in the Biological Sciences: Los Angeles The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles is hosting a Broadening Diversity workshop on April 6-7, 2018. This workshop is part of a western US workshop series with a goal to introduce undergraduate students, especially underrepresented populations, to museum and biodiversity science careers.
  • Wiki
  • Workshop Report
04/2018 Announcement - Collaborating on Archaeological Collections Care iDigBio will be presenting and participating in an upcoming session at the Society for American Archaeology. Session abstract organized by Roger Colten and S. Terry Childs: Archaeology shares collection management, preservation, analysis, and data retrieval issues with many scientific and cultural disciplines. Accessing the knowledge and expertise of colleagues in the natural history, museum, and other related professions can improve archaeological collections management and further scientific research. In this session, we seek to encourage collaboration with colleagues in a variety of professional organizations, such as the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections, Society of American Archivists, American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works, Society for Historical Archaeology, American Cultural Resources Association, and others. The goal is to learn from and then adopt or adapt some of their best practices for the benefit of archaeological collections. Data management and data sharing, conservation and preservation, and sustainable management of collections are among the topics covered by session participants.
08/03/2018-09/03/2018 Workshop: Towards a strategic approach to digitising and mobilising UK museum biodiversity data

Workshop: Regional digitisation project – practical review

In this 2-day workshop, iDigBio is supporting UK efforts to foster across-region collaboration and discussions for development of a strategic plan and vision to digitize regional and small collections across the UK. Day 1 attendees are museum leaders and directors. We will share case studies of collaborative digitization and data mobilization and offer examples from potential key stakeholders while highlighting audience benefits. Topics include: the UK science / nature agenda, citizen science, workforce skills and diversity, the power of storytelling, funding models, and institutional benefits mapping. For day 2, attendees will be staff caring for small and regional collections, essentially, non-national museum curators. The focus shifts to ideas, models, and training for incorporating digitization at this level but to key in on practical recommendations that do not require additional budget or expertise if possible. Practical training may be offered in one or two key areas, for example, georeferencing and review of recommendations based on the Five Task Clusters paper (Nelson, et al 2012). Future plans include repeating this second day for other regional (non-national museum) UK curators.
05/03/2018-06/03/2018 ICEDIG To support and collaborate with DiSSCo, iDigBio heads to Helsinki to participate in and share our experience with the leaders and institutional members of the upcoming DiSSCo initiative in the EU. The purpose of this 2-day meeting is to envision the human and cyberinfrastructure needs to realize DiSSCo.
13/02/2018-14/02/2018 Citation - Attribution Workshop - convened by BCoN iDigBio will be participating in a workshop to discuss the current citation / attribution standards and practices when referencing museum collections and specimens. This meeting convened by BCoN looks to make recommendations and initiate collaborations that support changes in community norms and publishing practices resulting in more automated and robust scientific collections citations and attributions.

Calendar Year 2017

Date Workshop Name (Calendar Announcement) Brief Summary Links
11/5/2017 - 11/8/2017 Entomology Society of America (ESA) 2017 Entomology 2017 will be held November 5-8, 2017 at the Denver Convention Center in Denver, Colorado. The theme "Ignite. Inspire. Innovate." highlights a vision to increase science communication within the research community. iDigBio will be leading a symposium: Big Data and Bugs: How Massively Collected Biodiversity Data Are Changing the Way We Do Insect Science. Pamela Soltis, iDigBio's Research PI will present a talk: "Using specimens and linked data in ecological and evolutionary research" in this symposium. The lineup of talks includes speakers from the US, South America, and the EU and several graduate students will be presenting their research.
11/4/2017 - 11/5/2017 Entomological Collections Network (ECN) 2017 The 2017 annual meeting of the ECN will be held in Denver, Colorado
11/1/2017 - 11/3/2017 ADBC Summit VII announcement iDigBio hosts the 7th joint meeting of the ADBC Community working together to advance access to collections data and expand use of collections data in scientific research. ADBC Summit VII will be held November 2-3, 2017 at the Florida Museum of Natural History (FLMNH) in Gainesville, Florida.
10/1/2017 - 10/6/2017 TDWG 2017 Annual Conference iDigBio will be participating in numerous symposiums, workshops, talks and posters at TDWG 2017 in Ottawa, Canada.

The annual TDWG conference serves two purposes:it is is a forum for extending, refining, and developing standards in response to new challenges and opportunities and it is a showcase for biodiversity informatics - much of which relies on the specifications provided by TDWG and other standards organizations.

For the many iDigBio-related events at #TDWG2017, please see iDigBio at TDWG 2017

09/24/2017 - 09/25/2017 GBIF24 announcement iDigBio will be at the table for the 24th meeting of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). This includes the GBIF Nodes Meeting 24-25 September, and the GBIF Governing Board Meeting 26-27 October. The meeting is in Helsinki, Finland and you can read more about the conference events here and here and also look at the complete programme.
8/05/2017 Field-to-collections BioBlitz announcement iDigBio continues efforts to engage the ecological community in using biocollections data. Calling all ecologists! Portland's Forest Park is the largest urban forest in the United States and home to the unique flora and fauna of the Pacific Northwest, yet our understanding of its biodiversity, especially in disturbed areas, is incomplete. Join iDigBio (Integrated Digitized Biocollections) as we seek to fill this knowledge gap. To do this, we'll be collecting voucher specimens and their data along with observational records and getting your input, as ecologists, on what information is critical to capture to make this data fruitful for your research.
7/17/2017 - 7/20/2017 Entomological Collections Management Workshop II The Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM) and the Field Museum (FM) are hosting the 2017 Entomological Collections Management Workshop sponsored by the Entomological Collections Network (ECN), the SysEB Section for ESA, and the Purdue Entomological Research Collection (PERC). That's a Monday through Thursday with one of those days in Chicago to visit the Field Museum and at least a day devoted entirely to digitization of entomological collections. iDigBio staff collaborated with ECN staff to add the digitization component and will attend to present relevant material.
7/16/2017 - 7/17/2017 Digitizing the 2nd largest Invertebrate Phylum: Mollusks This proposed taxon-focused digitization workshop will assemble a solid data foundation on the current status of US mollusk collections digitization, develop advancement strategies for rapidly promoting digitization and mobilization of North American molluscan specimen data, and provide georeferencing training covering key issues in terrestrial, aquatic, and marine localities, with special relevance to the phylum. The research use of digitized mollusk data and various applications by other stakeholder forms a prominent component of this workshop. The workshop is aligned with the Annual Meeting of the American Malacological Society in July 2017 hosted by the Delaware Museum of Natural History in Wilmington, DE.
6/29/2017 - 6/30/2017 Data Carpentry at FSU A two-day workshop at FSU covering better spreadsheet skills, introduction to Open Refine, the scripting-language R, and Structured Query Language (SQL). The majority of the participants are from the FSU Biological Sciences Department. This is the first in a on-going series as we strive to integrate Data Carpentry into FSU's efforts to offer students, staff, and faculty opportunities to increase their biodiversity data literacy, informatics skills, and data literacy. Focus is on empowering participants to use biodiversity collections data.
6/22/2017 SPNHC 2017 Symposium: Best Practices for Integrating Collections into Education A full-day SPNHC Symposium on June 22, 2017, sponsored by SCNet, iDigBio, NSCA, AIM-UP!, BLUE, SHC, and SPNHC
6/21/2017 Advances in Digitization: see events at SPNHC 2017 Advances in Digitization, offers talks showcasing current trends and recent developments in the world of collections digitization. We'll hear about new strategies for scaling up and improved data quality, and get input from the herbaria, fish, and paleo collections. We'll delve into the realm of 3-D imaging, citizen science, and research librarians as collaborators. Four posters offered in this section cover digitization efficiency and crowdsourcing ideas from insect collections, to paleo. We welcome our international participants from KEW, the Museum für Naturkunde, and the MNHN.
6/21/2017 Innovative Uses for Collections Data: see events at SPNHC 2017 Many collections now have more complete species inventories, and many have more digitized collections. What can be done with this data in house,to help the collections themselves? How does the aggregation of this data help collections more effectively advocate for themselves? How can it be used to for strategic planning? for advertisement? for seeking funding and setting policies? What can researchers and collections managers tell us about their georeferencing needs? From the biological field station to collections with specimens in the millions, find out what collections are learning about their own holdings - and the potential in that information.
6/18/2017 SPNHC 2017 Biodiversity Informatics 101: see events at SPNHC 2017 The short course will provide an introduction to natural history biodiversity informatics. The course is designed for museum professionals that would like a better understanding of the natural history informatics landscape or the resources available for digitizing and digitally sharing natural history collections data. Topics will cover the basics of natural history collection data and digital object lifecycle management, including digitally archiving and mobilizing collections data and participation in global initiatives. The course will be led by museum and informatics professionals with experience in natural history collections digitization and informatics.
06/5/2017- 06/6/2017 Inaugural Digital Data in Biodiversity Research Conference iDigBio, the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, and the University of Michigan Herbarium are pleased to announce the inaugural Digital Data in Biodiversity Research Conference, to be held in Ann Arbor, MI, 5-6 June 2017. The rapid mobilization of digitized biodiversity data, led largely in the United States by the National Science Foundation’s Advancing Digitization of Biodiversity Collections program, has resulted in a substantial increase in available data for research and related activities. This conference will encompass the uses of digitized data across all biodiversity disciplines, with special emphasis on digitized specimen data and the potential for “big data” analytics in organismal biology.
5/24/2017 - 5/25/2017 Resources for Collections-Based Undergraduate Education The iDigBio Education and Outreach Working Group, AIM-UP!, Kurator, Quantitative Undergraduate Biology Education and Synthesis (QUBES), Biodiversity Literacy for Undergraduate Education (BLUE), and others are collaborating on a workshop entitled “Resources for Collections-Based Undergraduate Education” as part of a QUBES Faculty Mentoring Network...
5/2/2017 - 5/3/2017 Digital Photography 101: ManagingCameras, Lighting, and Copy Stands for Specimen Imaging Topics will include digital camera and lens morphology, manual camera operation, customizing settings for specific purposes, sensor types, image file selection, lens types and usage, lighting and white balance, camera copy stands, light boxes, and imaging workflows for imaging various types of organisms and preservation types. This is a basic course in digital photography for specimen imaging.
3/27/2017 - 3/28/2017 Digital Data in Paleontological Research The workshop will focus on tools, strategies, pipelines, and workflows for generating and using digitized data for paleontological research and other activities.

Calendar Year 2016

Date Workshop Name (Calendar Announcement) Brief Summary Links
12/05/2016 - 12/06/2016 Incorporating K-12 Outreach Into Digitized Collections Programs This workshop will provide an opportunity for experts in both collections and K-12 education to interact, share knowledge, discuss challenges and issues, and ultimately collaborate on a best practices document that can be shared with the greater collections community.
11/09/2016 Collection Imaging Techniques at the Florida Museum of Natural History An in-house workshop on techniques for imaging collection items at the Florida Museum of Natural History (FLMNH) organized by staff of iDigBio and the FLMNH.
11/01/2016 - 11/03/2016 iDigBio Summit VI The annual iDigBio Summit is a meeting of representatives from TCNs, iDigBio, and other activities related to the U.S. National Science Foundation's Advancing Digitization of Biodiversity Collections (ADBC) program. The Summit focuses on discussions of shared goals, challenges, opportunities, and collaboration. More details and information will be disseminated as we develop the agenda..
10/04/2016 - 10/07/2016 Georeferencing for Research Use, a short course Our focus in this short course is on research use of georeferenced natural history collections data. We will include activities and discussions about best practices and tools for georeferencing, capturing locality data in the field, and using georeferenced specimen locality data in research. Attendees must have a basic level of experience with georeferencing techniques and tools - and be actively involved in research or supporting researchers. iDIgBio and CCBER are sponsoring this event, and NCEAS is our event host.
09/25/2016 - 09/30/2016 ICE 2016 XXV International Congress of Entomology Symposium In Data without Borders: Collecting, Digitizing, Using, and Re-using Biological Specimen Data, we feature talks about collecting museum specimens and digitizing the specimen data to support biodiversity research. Scientists show us how they are using biological specimen data in their research and we include presentations on career skills needed for 21st century digital collections and collaborative research.
09/21/2016 - 09/25/2016 Organization for Biological Field Stations Annual Meeting iDigBio held an afternoon workshop entitled "Mobilizing Biodiversity Data through Field Station Digitization" and follow up discussion session at the 50th annual meeting of the Organization for Biological Field Stations, held at the Sitka Science Center in Sitka, Alaska.
08/13/2016 TORCH IX iDigBio was invited by TORCH (Texas and Oklahoma Regional Consortium of Herbaria) to attend the TORCH IX meeting to discuss and motivate their data mobilization.
08/07/2016 - 08/12/2016 Symposium at ESA 2016 Annual Meeting At ESA 2016, on Wednesday 10 August, iDigBio presents a symposium bringing together speakers who have incorporated biological specimen data into their ecological research. Specimen collections include centuries of information from around the world and, as a result, comprise data collected in a wide range of formats, languages, media, accuracy, precision, and completeness. Using these data therefore requires an interdisciplinary approach that incorporates international standards and protocols. Further, these efforts must be forward thinking to anticipate the needs of future researchers and the capabilities of future technologies. The opportunities and challenges in working with these data are numerous and widely applicable across ecological fields. The session will include talks that span taxa, time and geographies, with an emphasis on data from iDigBio.
07/18/2016 -
07/22/2016 		Island Biology 2016: mobilizing natural history collections data for research use iDigBio, in collaboration with the University of the Azores, is hosting a mini workshop at the Island Biology 2016 meeting in July 2016, titled Digitized natural history collections: research uses for understanding island biodiversity, biogeography, and communities. Changes in digital technology have made it possible to collect, use, re-use, and share natural history collections and environmental data more easily. Researchers now have access to ever larger data sets for visualization, analysis, and modeling. In our workshop, we present a broad array of examples of the latest developments in island biodiversity research using specimen data from terrestrial and surrounding oceans habitats, including genomics, habitat assessment, phenology, biogeography, and taxonomic revisions. We present current trends in collecting and vouchering of specimens and field data, methods and tools for efficient digitization and mobilization of the specimen data, and tools and skills needed for visualizing the data. We then highlight how the data are being used, especially for research that expands our understanding and conservation of island biodiversity and our environment.
07/11/2016 -
07/11/2016 		iDigBio/JMIH Workshop This workshop took place after the 2016 Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists (JMIH) in New Orleans, LA. This workshop was designed as a product oriented workshop to address collection best practices in ichthyology and herpetology.
  • Workshop Report
06/24/2016 -
06/24/2016 		SPNHC 2016
Developing a global research infrastructure framework for bio-collections
as part of the One Collection: pathways to integration 		The future of biological collections lies in greater integration and cooperation to develop as a global Research Infrastructure (RI), with common practices, policy and systems. Achieving this requires mechanisms that enable us to draw on successful workflows, technologies and processes, and develop fair and efficient business models that ensure long-term sustainability of infrastructure. Building on the work of ADBC programme and coordinating groups like iDigBio, alongside the work of organisations and projects such as CETAF, GBIF, TDWG, NSCA and SYNTHESYS, this session will bring together key stakeholders to coordinate actions relevant to the development of a global RI on bio-collections.

At European level, the European Strategic Framework for Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) sets the top-level priorities for developing robust and sustainable RIs. Inclusion of bio-collections in the ESFRI roadmap would place bio-collections at the heart of the European RIs, enhancing physical and virtual access to collections, promoting large scale international collaborations and opening up new opportunities for attracting funding from both national and regional public and private sources.

06/23/2016 -
06/23/2016 		SPNHC 2016
Setting global and local digitisation priorities
as part of the One Collection: pathways to integration 		(Symposium from GBIF Task Force on Accelerating Dicsovery of Biocollections Data): Who are the future users of the digital network and how do we develop common priorities to service these needs? From a purely economic standpoint, the simplest and cheapest way to prioritize digitization is to use the A-Z approach, that is, start from one end of a collection moving sequentially to the last end. With this approach there is little trouble tracking or skipping, it is neutral and can be easily industrialised by using conveyer belt systems. However, in the majority of situations, resources are scarce, sizes and the different kinds of collections are overwhelming, research is ongoing, urgent and important questions need to be answered hence the need to set digitization priorities based for example on taxonomy, geography, habitats, research needs, preservation methods, societal needs, and so on. Priorities may be set at the individual, institutional, local, regional, national or international levels, and furthermore they need not be uniform so long as they are fit for purpose. Strategic prioritization is essential in order to make the biggest impact on biodiversity science, policy, decisions, take advantage of funding opportunities, and leverage the best partnerships. Despite the concerted efforts and the deployment of significant resources in the last decade, it is estimated that only about 10% of the world’s c. 3 billion natural history collection specimens (NHCs) have been digitised with most of the efforts concentrated in North America and Western Europe. Furthermore, only some of the digitised collections are fully mobilised in terms of being findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable. Past, current and planned digitisation projects that did not follow the A-Z approach and were not just opportunistic had to prioritise what they digitise and can provide important lessons to the biocollections community. This symposium aims to provide a roadmap for setting digitisation priorities.
06/23/2016 -
06/23/2016 		SPNHC 2016
Enabling Infrastructure: Future Collections, Data & Informatics
as part of the One Collection: pathways to integration 		Digital technologies are having a profound influence on how we manage, access and use our collections. These services have the potential to generate efficiencies that will transform traditional collection management and create opportunities to integrate our activities across and beyond institutional boundaries. In this session we invite speakers to present on the systems and technologies that will be required to develop a common digitisation infrastructure across collections-based institutions. Key topics include: Data mobilisation, data aggregators & data portals, next generation collection management systems, models & data services, and data consensus.
06/23/2016 -
06/23/2016 		SPNHC 2016
Digitizing and Imaging Collections: New Methods, Ideas, and Uses
as part of the One Collection: pathways to integration 		So many abstracts were submitted (27) for the first symposium in this series, we added another symposium! This series of talks will delve into new imaging techniques, new ideas for expanding existing digitization and datasets, and expand our knowledge of collections data-in-action.
06/23/2016 -
06/23/2016 		SPNHC 2016
Small Collections Symposium: Blending the educational resources of small and large collections for training the next generation of museum professionals. 		Theme: We invite presentations from small and large institutions on current museum-based educational and workforce training initiatives, the development and sharing of novel educational or training modules and resources, graduate and undergraduate internships and courses focused on experiential learning in collections management and curation, and future directions for natural history museum workforce development focused on students and early career professionals.
Rationale: Recent national and global digitization initiatives have led to a resurgence of interest in natural history collections (NHCs), the data they contain, and the potential to use NHC data to address large scale questions related to climate change, invasive species, and anthropogenic disturbance. This influx of energy into NHCs, emerging databases, emphasis on big data and data literacy, and the changing skill sets required to manage NHCs begs to examine the training of the next generation of scientists. The Implementation Plan for the Network Integrated Biocollections Alliance (USA) pointed to two emerging goals for the collections community that relate directly to education: 1) enhancing the training of existing collections staff and create the next generation of biodiversity information managers, and 2) infusing specimen-based learning and exploration into formal and informal science education. With the publication of Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology: A Call to Action, there has been a renewed interest in creating authentic research experiences. The next generation of college graduates needs to be competent in communication and collaboration, have quantitative competency, and the ability to understand and interpret data. The future workforce of biologists must be comfortable working with large databases. Specimens and data from NHCs can serve a unique role in workforce training as NHC specimens are uniquely qualified to teach about the iterative process of science, data literacy, quantitative biology, and biodiversity informatics.
06/22/2016 -
06/22/2016 		SPNHC 2016
An International Conversation on Mobilizing Natural History Collections Data and Integrating Data for Research
as part of the One Collection: pathways to integration 		Natural History Collection (NHC) data are being mobilized all over the world. Recent preliminary worldwide survey data suggests the trend is growing. As digitization begins to become an every-day part of collections, many compelling issues vie for attention. For example, cost, prioritization, sustainability, and rates of digitization are four such issues. And, many uses for NHC data are well-known and fairly well-understood. But issues exist with the data, and there is still much legacy data to be digitally captured – before it can be shared with the world’s researchers. We envision an assortment of talks covering three areas: digitization (including imaging) lessons learned, new and emerging technologies/models, and collections data-in-action.
06/22/2016 -
06/24/2016 		SPNHC 2016
One Collection: pathways to integration 		SYNTHESYS3, GBIF, CETAF, iDigBio, and others collaborated to create this series of 5 linked symposia to foster a unified conversation at SPNHC 2016 directed at coordinating efforts to realize global digitization and global data access for biological collections. The goals of these integrated symposia are to discuss:
  • lessons learned so far, including new developments and data use examples;
  • strategies for worldwide access to the means to digitize collections data;
  • guidelines to aid prioritization of collections’ digitization and future collecting; and
  • the necessary human resources, hardware and software infrastructure for global creation of and access to this much-needed data.
04/04/2016 -
04/06/2016 		Vertebrate Digitization Workshop Two iDigBio, in collaboration with the University of California, Berkeley’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology (MVZ) and the Integrated Biology Graduate Student Association (IBGSA) is offering a second vertebrate digitization workshop, to be held in Berkeley, CA, April 4-6, 2016 (3 & 7 are travel days).

This workshop will focus heavily on imaging vertebrate collections, with an emphasis on 2D imaging. Imaging topics will include but not be limited to selecting and setting up 2D imaging stations, lighting systems, 2D imaging techniques, imaging on a budget, strategies for imaging dry-preserved and fluid-preserved specimens, consideration of image storage requirements, imaging ledgers and catalogs, imaging microscopic slides, mining images for character traits, issues of scale in imaging large and small specimens, workflows, image processing, and evaluating what to image, including consideration of standard views.

Data issues addressed will include the importance of data standards, including Darwin Core and Audubon Core, publishing data to the web via aggregators, including iDigBio, and consideration of core specimen data to be preserved.
03/15/2016 -
03/16/2016 		Overcoming Challenges for Imaging Fluid-preserved Vertebrates This is an invited, product-oriented workshop focused on strategies for digitizing fluid-preserved vertebrate specimens. Recommended practices and next steps will be major outcomes.
03/12/2016 -
03/13/2016 		Coding Phenological Data from Herbarium Sheets Workshop This is an invited two-day workshop to produce standards and protocols for coding phonological data from plant specimen images and specimens.
02/03/2016 Mini-workshop at Scripps Institute of Oceanography A one-day workshop customized to the SIO personnel.

Calendar Year 2015

Date Workshop or Symposium Name (Calendar Announcement) Brief Summary Links
12/02/2015 - 12/03/2015 Using Biodiversity Specimen-Based Data to Study Global Change iDigBio will host a workshop on using specimen-based data to study global change, including climate change, landscape modification, and invasive species. The workshop will examine the use of digitized data to address key questions while also addressing the issue of incomplete (spotty) geographic and taxonomic data.
11/04/2015 - 11/06/2015 iDigBio Summit V The Summit is a meeting of representatives from TCNs, iDigBio, and other activities related to the Advancing Digitization of Biodiversity Collections (ADBC) program. The Summit will focus on discussions of shared goals, challenges, opportunities, and collaboration.
10/07/2015 EMu User Group NHSIG Half-Day Workshop Introduction to ADBC, iDigBio, and several topics on digitization
10/02/2015 - 10/03/2015 Broadening Participation in the Biological Sciences: Careers and Graduate Study in Biology Focused on broadening undergraduate participation in the biological sciences. Career shadowing opportunity for undergraduate students focusing on career and graduate study opportunities in biology, biodiversity, ecology, museum studies, and evolution.
09/28/2015 - 10/02/2015 Symposium+DEMO at BIS TDWG 2015 Biodiversity Data Mobilization Models:

Data Carpentry, Crowd Transcription and …your data mobilization models.

This symposium with demos focuses broadly on models for biodiversity data mobilization. Learn about models you can use to image your specimens and capture the data.... in ways that align with biodiversity data standards and established protocols. What models are out there now that faciliate digitization of natural history collections data and data use? Where do we find these models? Do they incorporate outreach and collaboration? How do these models give researchers faster access to more and better, more fit-for-use data? Do researchers, custodians of biodiversity data, and citizen scientists have the skills needed to create, use, and re-use the data?
09/21/2015 - 09/25/2015 (2-day) iDigBio and Data Carpentry Workshop at Biodiversity Informatics Training Week (pre-BIS TDWG). Data Carpentry's aim is to teach researchers basic concepts, skills, and tools for working with data so that they can get more done in less time, and with less pain. Our curriculum for this Data Carpentry workshop includes: Data organization in spreadsheets and data cleaning with OpenRefine, Intro to and Data management in SQL, Introduction to R or Python (based on attendees’ preference)
09/15/2015 - 09/17/2015 Managing Natural History Collections Data for Global Discoverability. What are the current and best data management practices for collections? This three-day workshop is co-sponsored by Arizona State University (ASU) and iDigBio and hosted by ASU. It offers hands-on training and focuses on data management skills needed for taking care of the digital collection in a natural history museum. What are best practices for getting field data into databases? How do you encourage and support born-digital data? Is your data formatted with up-to-date data quality standards in mind from start to use / re-use?
09/16/2015 Organization of Biological Field Stations Annual Meeting and Field Station Digitization Workshop Strategies for digitizing and mobilizing data from these important biodiversity treasures (including data transcription and imaging) and encouraging data use by a broad range of biologists and ecologists. Emphasis will be on workflows, specimen imaging, and free, easy-to-use database systems that provide for data mobilization without the support of IT staff.
08/09/2015 - 08/14/2015 Ignite Session: Enhancing Ecological Research with iDigBio Specimen Data at Ecological Society of America 2015 Conference iDigBio is the national resource for digitized information about existing, vouchered natural history collections. We will explore the benefits to ecologists in using specimen data that span centuries, continents and taxa. The tools and resources to work with these data are widely available and will be explored in this session.
07/26/2015 Ecological Niche Modeling: A Crash Course at Botany 2015

The abundance of digitized museum specimen records and observational occurrence data provides a fantastic resource for ecological niche modeling. However, navigating the many available methods can be bewildering. In this full-day workshop, we will provide hands-on instruction on ways to access and download these data (from GBIF, iDigBio, and other aggregators), prepare them for analysis, and apply Maxent software to construct ecological niche models. We will discuss the assumptions of the analyses and the interpretations of the results. The workshop is designed to introduce the concepts and practice of ecological niche modeling, so no experience is needed. However, we will explore advanced topics as requested.

06/15/2015 - 06/17/2015 3D Digitization of Fossils for Educators & Citizen Scientists The 3D Digitization of Fossils for Educators & Citizen Scientists Workshop will bring together scientists, collection professionals, and K-12 educators to discuss using 3D imaging and citizen science in the classroom. The workshop will consist of presentations, breakout discussion sessions, collection tours, and a field trip to Thomas Farm.
06/12/2015 American Society of Mammalogists (ASM)/iDigBio Collections Digitization and Imaging Workshop With the help of iDigBio, the goal of this workshop is to offer a template for those interested in sharing their mammalogy collections with the global scientific community. Although the digitization of museum collection data has been an effort underway in the mammal community for quite sometime, there still remain many mammal collections unavailable to the rest of the scientific world, especially those at smaller institutions without the infrastructure or support to undergo such efforts. However, through the support of the National Science Foundation (NSF), a national effort is underway to make these collections, among others, available to the greater research community, government agencies, students, educators, and the general public.
06/03/2015 - 06/05/2015 Hackathon on iDigBio APIs/Services and Interoperability iDigBio has ingested more than 25 million specimens and 4 million media objects from biodiversity collections with world-wide range. This great resource of biodiversity information has been made accessible not only through the iDigBio portal, but also through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that applications written in any programming language can consume since 2013 to (a) access specimens, media, media metadata, datasets and publishers information, (b) perform searches, and (c) ingest media and its metadata. Currently, this great resource is mainly used by the iDigBio portal and iDigBio developed applications. The goals of this hackathon are to: lower the entrance barrier to potential direct uses of the API by disseminating more broadly its capabilities and generating a body of use-case examples that can be reused by others, identify new opportunities for integration with other cyberinfrastructures, and develop collaborative pilot experiments that build on existing interoperability of other cyberinfrastructures.
06/01/2015 - 06/02/2015 Reproducible Science Workshop Making science more reproducible has the potential to advance scientific research and make researchers' work more effective and productive. For computational and data-intensive research, which is increasingly pervasive across the sciences, this is particularly true, and yet is often seen as difficult to achieve. In this 2-day bootcamp-style hands-on workshop, we will teach a number of tools, resources, and practices that can be used today to make one's computational science more reproducible.
05/21/2015 - 05/21/2015 SPNHC 2015 DemoCamp SPNHC DemoCamp (sponsored by iDigBio)
05/21/2015 - 05/21/2015 SPNHC 2015 Small Collections Symposium The symposium is jointly sponsored by iDigBio and the Small Collections Network (SCNet). Talks fall into three tracks: Small collections - the key to educating future generations of scientists, Digitization practices and challenges in small collections and museums, and Reaching out to small collections.
05/20/2015 - 05/20/2015 SPNHC 2015 Symposium - Specimens Full Circle: Collection to Digitization to Data Use. Novel field-collecting methods providing richer specimen data, maturing transcription and imaging techniques, and up-dated end-user interfaces are resulting in greater access to and use of specimen data for a variety of purposes. This has led to increasing use of museum specimen data for analysis and the development of visualization tools that facilitate research and support educational needs and outreach opportunities. We're highlighting talks by students, and focusing on collecting practices that result in faster access to high quality data, sharing improved digitization methods, and finding out how the specimen data is being used in current research.
05/19/2015 - 05/19/2015 SPNHC 2015 Plenary Session iDigBio, the National Science Collections Alliance (NSCA), and the Network Integrated Biocollections Alliance (NIBA) Research Coordination Network (RCN) co-sponsored the Plenary Session at the 2015 annual meeting of the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC). The program included six speakers who kicked off the meeting by presenting thought on the topic of Collections for the 21st Century.
05/04/2015 - 05/07/2015 Strategies for Vertebrate Digitization Workshop iDigBio, the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, Bishop Museum, and University of Michigan Museum of Zoology are pleased to offer a 3-day workshop focused on the digitization of vertebrate collections, to include the value of live audio and video phenotypic recordings, media metadata standards, media recording techniques (including equipment setup, configuration, and use), methods for linking media to physical specimens, media metadata standards, the value of specimen still images, issues in launching a digitization program, digitization workflows, and digital asset management and archiving.
04/13/2015 - 04/17/2015 International Digitization Summit Held in Australia, attended by iDigBio
03/09/2015 - 03/12/2015 Field to Database Workshop What are the leading-edge collecting practices across disciplines? This 4-day workshop offers hands-on collecting in-the-field with invited subject-matter experts from ecology, botany, ornithology, paleontology, marine invertebrates, and entomology sharing their leading-edge practices. We'll head back to the classroom to see how field data is transformed to be suitable for research use. Course includes discussion and hands-on learning for creation of data born-digital and formatted with up-to-date data quality standards in mind from start to use / re-use.
01/26/2015 - 01/30/2015 Workflows Herbarium Digitization Workflows Herbarium Digitization Workshop will be held at the Valdosta State University
01/13/2015 - 01/14/2015 Data Standards, Data Sharing and Demystifying the IPT Enhance community knowledge needed for data mobilization through hands-on training about Data Standards, Data Sharing, and the DwC-A format generated by the GBIF Integrated Publishing Toolkit (IPT).

Calendar Year 2014

Date Workshop Name (Calendar Announcement) Brief Summary Links
12/3/2014 - 12/5/2014 #CitStitch Hackathon CitStitch Hackathon, the second in a series of hackathons designed to faciliate and enhance the participation of citizen scientists in the digitization and enhancement of natural history and related collections specimen data.

Transcription Hackathon Workshop Agenda

11/25/2014 SiBBr iDigBio at SiBBr Launch Event, Brasilia, Brazil
11/15/2014- 11/16/2014 Entomological Collections Network (ECN) The Entomological Collections Network (ECN) and iDigBio are excited to announce we will be teaming up for this year's 24th Annual ECN meeting in Portland, Oregon from November 15-16, 2014.


10/27/2014- 10/28/2014 iDigBio Summit 2014 The Summit is a meeting of representatives from all TCNs, iDigBio, and other activities related to the Advancing Digitization of Biodiversity Collections (ADBC) program. The Summit will focus on discussions of shared goals, challenges and opportunities, and collaboration among stakeholders.
10/27/2014 Access to Digitization Tools and Methods This broad digitisation symposium will include multiple sessions, to cover the different elements of digitisation. The key focus will be to cover the developments that are occurring in digitisation but with a strong emphasis on the accessibility of tools and protocols (think open access, open source).
10/19-10/22/2014 iDigBio's Symposium at the Geological Society of America Annual Meeting iDigBio, in collaboration with the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections, the Paleontological Society, GSA Geoinformatics, University of Colorado Museum of Natural History, and Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, sponsored a symposium entitled “Advancing the Digitization of Paleontology and Geoscience Collections: Projects, Programs, and Practices”. New developments in digitization and data discovery were presented at the symposium.)
10/6/2014- 10/9/2014

Leveraging Digitization Practices Across Multiple Domains

iDigBio and the Cheadle Center for Biodiversity & Ecological Restoration (CCBER) at the University of California, Santa Barbara are pleased to announce Leveraging Digitization Practices across Multiple Domains, a natural history collections digitization workshop to be held 6-9 October 2014 in Santa Barbara.
9/29/2014- 9/30/2014

Data Carpentry Workshop at iDigBio

Research using museum specimen data to investigate complex problems over present, recent, and geologic time scales requires managing, analyzing, and visualizing large and/or diverse data sets. In addition, performing these tasks is increasingly a team effort, requiring collaborative work in virtual environments. Integrated Digitized Biodiversity Collections (iDigBio) funded by a NSF, invites applications graduate students, post-docs, current researchers, (and potentially honors undergrads) for a two-day Data Carpentry Workshop. The workshop will be held (date to be announced) at iDigBio in Gainesville, Florida. "Data Carpentry's aim is to teach researchers basic concepts, skills, and tools for working with data so that they can get more done in less time, and with less pain." The workshop offers participants hands-on training in managing the life-cycle of their data and code with a focus on using open source tools.


09/06/2014 iDigBio’s Careers and Graduate Study in the Biological Sciences: A Workshop for Undergraduate Students The Field Museum of Natural History, National Science Foundation, and iDigBio co-sponsored a free 1-day workshop for undergraduate students in the Chicago area focusing on opportunities for careers and graduate study in the biological sciences. A primary goal of the event was to increase the participation of underrepresented minorities in the biological sciences, including African/Black Americans, American Indians, Native Alaskans and Hawaiians, and Hispanics/Chicanos/Latinos. About 50 undergraduates and recent graduates attended the workshop and with about 30 professional scientists on hand, students had plenty of opportunity to ask questions and discuss interests with working biologists and collections professionals.)
07/31/2014

North American Network Small Herbaria Workshop

iDigBio, the North American Network of Small Herbaria (NANSH), and SCNet collaborated on a 1-day workshop focused on digitizing small herbaria, at Botany 2014. The target audience for this workshop included directors, curators, and collections managers at smaller herbaria that have 1) yet to begin digitization, 2) started digitizing but would like to share ideas and discover new strategies, 3) captured data from some or all specimens but have yet to begin imaging, and/or 4) captured data in an electronic format (spreadsheets, documents, database, etc.) but would like to have a place to serve the data (and/or images) on the web.

Our vision for the workshop was to provide practical and implementable strategies.Major foci included:

  • essential steps for beginning digitization
  • enrolling institutions in the NANSH portal (http://nansh.org/portal/), a free and easy-to-use Symbiota-based network
  • techniques for uploading images and data to a Symbiota portal
  • easy methods for mobilizing existing data
  • increasing the exposure of specimen data from small herbaria
  • data standards
  • linking specimen records to images
  • specifications for camera equipment and imaging stations
  • using digitized data for research
07/29/2014

Digitized Natural History Collections Digitization for International Collaboration

Supported by the NSF ADBC program natural history collections of some taxonomic groups are currently being digitized at a rapid rate and digitally available records are reaching a critical mass to impact advanced research applications. By joining an already sizeable body of digital primary biodiversity records these data will contribute to the fact that biodiversity research is becoming a data intensive science and for those taxonomic groups many of the current limitations may be overcome.

We proposed a symposium to explore how this growing resource of digital primary biodiversity data has been used by the community. We planned presentations on:

  • how this resource improves traditional research
  • new research question that can be addressed
  • its impacts on community building and research collaborations
  • what is still missing and how do other existing or emerging digital resources (e.g. DataONE, NEON, EOL and tools like the PhyloJIVE ) interact, support, and enhanced this research.


07/27/2014

Georeferencing Natural History Collections: A Crash Course in Translating Locality Data into Geographic Coordinates

The digitization of biological specimens is transforming natural history collections for an array of novel research applications, permitting the utilization of large-scale data sets from the comfort of one’s own desk. Studies using digitized data include niche modeling, phylogeography, range/distribution investigations, and conservation and biodiversity management, to name just a few.
06/26/2014

SPNHC 2014 DemoCamp

DemoCamp provides a venue for promotion of technological solutions to advance the field of museum curation and specimen digitization, with broad applications for biology, ecology, and biodiversity informatics. DemoCamp is sponsored again this year by iDigBio, the National Resource for Advancing Digitization of Biodiversity Collections (ADBC), funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation. Live demonstrations are welcomed in any technologies relevant to biologists, collections managers, or biodiversity information managers, as well as technologies that enable the broader use of data, or enable citizen scientist participation.
06/26/2014

SPNHC 2014 Symposium: Progress in Natural History Collections Digitisation

All across the globe, many Natural History Collections (NHC) are digitizing their holdings, seeking funding to digitize, or trying to figure out how they can get started. Logically, with the development of these digital resources, researchers, providers, and users are interested in any specimen data gaps noticed and specimen data use and re-use cases. No matter where you are on this continuum at your institution, keeping up-to-date on what is going on and what is possible is no easy task. In this session, our aim is to provide a broad and deep coverage of current worldwide NHC digitization efforts.
06/25/2014

Symposium: Recruiting, Retaining, and Supporting Small Collections in Biodiversity Digitization Initiatives

Half-Day Symposium (scheduled for June 25, 2014) at the SPNHC 2014 Annual Conference in Cardiff, Wales. This half-day symposium, presented by iDigBio and the Small Collections Network (SCNet), will focus on strategies for recruiting, retaining, and sustaining small collections within local, regional, national, and international digitization initiatives.
05/24/2014

TORCH VIII + iDigBio Digitization Workshop at TORCH 2014

The Texas Oklahoma Regional Consortium of Herbaria (TORCH) invited iDigBio to put together a one-day Workshop (9am-5pm Saturday May 24) for TORCH members.This TORCH - iDigBio Workshop is hosted by TORCH and 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.
05/20/2014 - 05/23/2014

Specify for Paleo Collections Workshop

This workshop focuses on using Specify software for paleontology collections. The workshop is a 4-day event ranging from beginning to advanced topics, to include Specify Workbench, forms development and editing, report design, and data cleaning. Participants are expected to have Specify software installed on a laptop prior to the workshop and to bring the laptop with them.
05/8/2014 - 05/9/2014

Biodiversity Informatics Workshop

The National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) is running a Data Carpentry bootcamp at NESCent. Data Carpentry's aim is to teach researchers basic concepts, skills, and tools for working with data so that they can get more done in less time, and with less pain. Our curriculum includes, 1) getting data out of Excel and into more powerful tools, 2) managing data in R, 3) introduction to databases, combining and querying data using SQL, and 4) collaborative data management & publishing data.
05/5/2014- 05/6/2014

Collections for the 21st Century Symposium

The symposium will emphasize the value of collections data in meeting challenges facing biodiversity and human societies. Digitization of bio-specimens has brought a tremendous amount of data on-line for new and exciting uses in research and education.
04/28/2014 - 05/1/2014

Imaging Methods for Paleontological Collections

iDigBio in collaboration with the Jackson School of Geosciences and its High Resolution X­ray CT Facility at the University of Texas is pleased to announce a co­-sponsored workshop focused on imaging solutions for paleontological specimens and research. The workshop will be heavily focused on hands ­on experimentation with various types of imaging stations, cameras, microscopes, and image acquisition and processing software. One full day will be devoted to a hands -on session targeted at generating, processing, and using CT datasets for paleontological research. Datasets will be generated from participant­-contributed material; instruction will be provided by staff at the High Resolution X­ray CT Facility.
04/7/2014- 04/10/2014

Small Collections Workshop


The workshop brings together about 45 collections professionals representing a broad range of preparation types, institutions, and administrative levels, all of whom have interest, expertise, or insight into promoting small collections and ensuring their inclusion within the digitization effort. This is a product-oriented workshop through which SCNet hopes to create and disseminate a set of publishable best practices, chart a course for the future of the Network, and lay the initial groundwork for several international symposia and conferences focused on curation and digitization in small collections.
03/24/2014- 03/27/2014

Biological Collections Digitization in the Pacific


This workshop is part of a continuing series of iDigBio­ sponsored workshops focused on organizing, launching, maintaining, and enhancing biological collections digitization programs. The primary goals are to 1) enhance international collaboration and sharing regarding biological collections digitization in the South Pacific, and 2) prepare participants with the necessary skills and knowledge to launch, manage, and sustain a biodiversity collections digitization program individually, through collaboration with an existing Thematic Collections Network (TCN), as a Partner with an Existing Network (PEN), through direct collaboration with iDigBio, or through collaboration with other collections and museums within the region.
03/24/2014- 03/25/2014

iDigBio Data Modeling Workshop


The primary goal of the workshop is to produce a document that is specific to the data management needs of repositories. Discussion topics will include preserving data semantics, interoperability, identifiers, names, and services.
03/9/2014- 03/12/2014

iDigBio Original Source Materials Workshop

iDigBio and Yale Peabody Museum are pleased announce a workshop focused on the digitization of original, specimen-related source materials in natural history collections, to include field notebooks, catalogs, ledgers, cards, and other archival materials that contain specimen-related data.


02/27/2014

“An Outsider’s view inside NSF: E&O Trends and Tips” iDigBio NSF E&O Webinar


Talk entitled “An Outsider’s view inside NSF: E&O Trends and Tips” Bruce J. MacFadden (former Program Officer, EHR Division of Research in Learning)


02/19/2014

FOSSIL Kickoff Meeting


Representatives from participating fossil clubs, the project team, and other stakeholders from around the U.S. will meet for presentations, brainstorming, and discussion.


02/15/2014- 02/18/2014

NAPC Symposium: "Celebrating Public Participation in Paleontology"


Celebrating public participation in paleontology,Sponsored by The Florida Paleontological Society
Chairs: Austin J.W. Hendy & Bruce J. MacFadden.


02/1/2014

Careers and Graduate Study in the Biological Sciences (workshop report)


A 1-day workshop for undergraduate students focusing on opportunities for careers and graduate study in field and environmental biology, biodiversity, ecology, and evolution. A primary goal is increasing minority participation in the biological sciences within such groups as African and Black Americans, Native Americans, and individuals of Hispanic ethnicity. Registration is open to freshmen, sophomores, juniors, seniors, and recent graduates.
01/15/2014- 01/17/2014

iDigBio Education and Outreach Workshop

Two day workshop to explore the parameters of iDigBio's Education and Outreach directives. TCN presentations, keynote speakers and demonstrations of the Resources and Tools available are among the topics to be addressed.

Calendar Year 2013

Date Workshop Name (Calendar Announcement) Brief Summary Links


12/16/2013 - 12/20/2013

CitScribe Hackathon

This was an exciting opportunity to work on a ground-breaking citizen-science endeavor with immediate and strong impacts in the areas of biodiversity and applied conservation. The hackathon produced new functionality and interoperability for Zooniverse's Notes from Nature (www.notesfromnature.org) and similar transcription tools. There were four areas of development that were progressively addressed throughout the week:
  • linking images registered to the iDigBio Cloud to transcription tools to create efficiency and alleviate storage issues
  • transcription QA/QC and the reconciliation of replicate transcriptions
  • integration of OCR into the transcription workflow
  • new UI features and novel incentive approaches for public engagement


12/09/2013 - 12/12/2013

iDigBio Small Herbarium Workshop

Co-sponsored by iDigBio, the Robert K. Godfrey Herbarium at Florida State, the North American Network of Small Herbaria, and the Small Collections Network (SCNet), the event brought together about 30 collections professionals from 25 institutions representing 16 states, all focused on strategies and processes for digitizing the collections held in smaller herbaria. More information about the workshop, including recordings of the sessions, and PDF files of the proceedings, are available at the workshop’s wiki.

The primary goals for the workshop included:

  • Encouraging, enabling, and facilitating the digitization of small herbarium collections, to include recording, imaging, and serving specimen data,
  • Encouraging collaboration and interaction among small herbaria across the United States,
  • Expanding the number of data portals of the North American Network of Small Herbaria (NANSH),
  • Encouraging attendance at the upcoming iDigBio-sponsored small herbarium workshop to be held in conjunction with Botany 2014,
  • Fostering expansion of SCNet.
11/19/2013- 11/20/2013 iDigBio Summit 2013 Foster communication and cohesion between iDigBio and Thematic Collections Networks (TCNs), clarify objectives, identify challenges and needs.
10/27/2013- 11/1/2013 iDigBio Symposium at TDWG 2013 Empowering International eCollaboration for Sustainability: Symposium at Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) 2013
09/23/2013 - 09/26/2013

iDigBio Paleontology Digitization Workshop

More than 60 paleontologists representing 41 institutions assembled in New Haven, CT the week of September 23rd, 2013 to share ideas, protocols, preferences, and strategies.


09/16/2013 - 09/18/2013

iDigBio Fluid-preserved Invertebrate Imaging Workshop

The content of the Ann Arbor workshop included a host of excellent presentations and lots of outstanding discussion, all focused on imaging arthropods. Nearly 30 institutions were represented by the 40 participants.


08/12/2013 - 08/16/2013

iDigBio's 2nd Train the Trainers Georeferencing Workshop from the GWG

From across the continent, a diverse group of 26 participants, 10 remote participants, and five instructors gathered in Gainesville from August 12 – 16 for a week-long intermediate to advanced course on georeferencing natural history museum legacy specimen data, emphasizing how to present and teach these skills to others.
08/12/2013 - 08/16/2013

Specify 6 Workshop

This was a "progressive workshop," that began with Specify 6 installation and basics and progressed through advanced topics. Each participant will attend up to 3 consecutive days, depending on need and experience with Specify.
07/29/2013

iDigBio Symposium at Botany 2013: Broadening Participation- Recruiting and Retaining Outstanding Scientists in the Botanical Sciences (Anna Monfils)

Recruiting and Retaining Outstanding Scientists in the Botanical Sciences


07/29/2013

iDigBio Symposium at Botany 2013: Uses of Herbarium Specimens in Research, Teaching, and Public Outreach (Pam Soltis)

Uses of Herbarium Specimens in Research, Teaching, and Public Outreach


07/16/2013

CSIRO Digitization Workshop

iDigBio joined a digitization symposium featured at the 12th Pacific Science Inter-Congress held at the University of the South Pacific in Suva, Fiji which was followed by a digitization workshop for the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), in Canberra, Australia. The Pacific Science Inter-congress was attended by an assortment of biologists, ecologists, and social scientists. The program included a daylong symposium coordinated by Mantle and Dr. David Schindel, Executive Secretary of the Consortium for the Barcode of Life. This symposium, titled Connecting Biodiversity Collections in the Pacific: Digitization through DNA Barcoding and Informatics, spanned Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning, with the Wednesday session focused mostly on the digitization and distribution of biodiversity data and Thursday, on DNA barcoding.
04/24/2013- 04/25/2013

iDigBio Entomology Digitization Workshop (DROID 2)

This workshop will focus on digitization of dried insect specimens, stored in drawers and trays, either pinned or in packets. A sampling of workshop topics includes specimen label databasing, specimen imaging, ledger and field book databasing and imaging, database selection decisions, and digitization workflows. The workshop will be held at The Field Museum, Chicago, Illinois April 24-25, 2013.


04/12/2013-04/13/2013

ASB 2013 symposium and workshop

There will be a symposium and workshop on museum collection digitization efforts at the 2013 meeting of the Association of Southeastern Biologists (ASB). The emphasis will be on workflow options and workflow efficiency. The symposium will provide exposure to digitization efforts and challenges across taxonomic groups while the workshop will be a one-day training session on workflow concepts and logistics.


03/05/2013- 03/06/2013

iDigBio Wet Collections Digitization Workshop (DROID 3)

This new workshop will focus on digitization of wet collections, to include specimen label databasing, specimen imaging, ledger and field book imaging, and digitization of legacy objects such as X-rays, CT scans, and 35mm slides. It will be held at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas on March 5-6, 2013.
02/13/2013- 02/14/2013

Augmenting OCR Hackathon

This Hackathon addresses OCR output and natural language parsing of natural history museum's specimen label data.

Calendar Year 2012

Date Workshop Name (Calendar Announcement) Brief Summary Links
10/23/2012- 10/24/2012 iDigBio Summit 2012


Foster communication and cohesion between iDigBio and Thematic Collections Networks (TCNs), clarify objectives, identify challenges and needs.
10/08/2012- 10/12/2012

iDigBio's first Train-the-Trainers Georeferencing Workshop

This "train-the-trainers" workshop is designed to provide the community with more trainers across the USA available to train others to georeference specimen label locality data. Participants are expected to organize and facilitate at least one multi-day georeferencing workshop targeted at the TCNs and other digitization projects of which the participants are representative. The workshop is an intensive 5-day event in Gainesville, Florida October 8 - 12, 2012. The participant list is posted (see column to the right).


10/01/2012- 10/02/2012 iDigBio Augmenting OCR Working Group workshop In order to identify best practices and to develop tools for this process and plan a hackathon, iDigBio (https://www.idigbio.org/) will hold an “iDigBio Augumenting OCR” workshop October 1-2, 2012, in Gainesville, Florida.
09/28/2012- 9/29/2012

Public Participation in Digitization of Biodiversity Subject Workshop

This workshop seeks to identify ways to engage the public in the ongoing digitization of biodiversity specimens.
09/17/2012- 9/18/2012

Digitizing Plant Collections Workshop

iDigBio is offering a series of preparation-specific workshops focusing on organizing, launching, and maintaining a biological collections digitization program. The first of these workshops will focus on vascular and non-vascular plant digitization and will be held at Valdosta State University, September 16­–18, 2012.
07/12/2012 Botany 2012 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.


05/30/2012- 5/31/2012 Developing Robust Object to Image to Data Workflows Workshop This research workshop addresses the design, documentation, and optimization of Object-to-Image-to-Data workflows for digitizing biological specimens which are curated in thousands of museum and herbarium collections worldwide.


04/27/2012- 04/28/2012 iDigBio Paleocollections Workshop Address the digitization needs, opportunities and Grand Challenges of the US Paleontological collections community throughout the US.
03/28/2012- 3/30/2012 IT Standards Workshop Bring together experts in biodiversity informatics and related fields. Priorities include: 1) harmonizing data and metadata requirements for digital collections; 2) examining semantic and linked-data approaches to biodiversity data interoperability; 3) developing training and testing resources for georeferencing; 4) defining storage capabilities, interoperability, and computational requirements for the national resource.

Calendar Year 2011

Date Workshop Name (Calendar Announcement) Brief Summary Links
11/29/2011 - 12/01/2011 iDigBio Summit 2011 Foster communication and cohesion between iDigBio and Thematic Collections Networks (TCNs), clarify objectives, identify challenges and needs.
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