News Articles
Published: 03-24-2017
The Society of Herbarium Curators and iDigBio are pleased to announce a 6-week "Strategic Planning for Herbaria” short course.
Take this opportunity to introduce new purpose and excitement into your organization. Learn how to relate your collection’s compelling vision to stakeholders and communicate long-term objectives and strategies to administrators.
The “...
Published: 03-10-2017
Contributed by: Donald H. Pfister, Asa Gray Professor of Systematic Botany and Curator, Farlow Library and Herbarium, Harvard University, 22 Divinity Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138
There is a certain allure when undescribed plants are discovered in the herbarium or museum. Many have experienced the moment when they looked at a preserved specimen and thought, “Oh, if only I had this...
Published: 03-02-2017
The scientific view from behind the microphone
Imagine it. The sweaty palms, the nervous fidgeting. You're sitting in the waiting room of the radio station, the governors' office, or waiting to speak with the Chair of your Department. You begin question your preparation - What is the key message and main talking points? Is there an engaging and relevant story to highlight...
Published: 02-08-2017
Collecting trends: how wars and human history influence biological collections
-- Contributed by Vaughn Shirey, The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University
A large portion of my research in The Gelhaus Lab at The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University relies heavily on digitized specimen data and metadata, specifically the who, when, and where of specimen collection....
Published: 01-30-2017
Allocating more memory to OpenRefine - and other helpful information for handling large datasets
-- Contributed by Chris Evelyn, University of California - Santa Barbara, along with Deborah Paul and Shelley James, iDigBio
This month's Research Spotlight contribution resulted from a recent iDigBio workshop where participants learned the basics of OpenRefine. Finding a...
Published: 01-05-2017
January 5, 2017
At the 2016 meeting of the Biodiversity Information Standards organization (TDWG), Matthew Collins, Jen Hammock (Encycopedia of Life), and Alexander Thompson chaired a symposium titled “Big Data Analysis Methods and Techniques as Applied to Biocollections”. The TDWG community is at a turning point that is a reflection of the success of the work that they...
Published: 12-21-2016
Dear iDigBio Enthusiasts,
iDigBio is halfway through its sixth year and has many exciting plans for 2017. Moving forward, we will continue to work with the collections community to facilitate digitization, mobilization, and use of specimen data, while continuing to enhance the data search portal. iDigBio’s priorities are to work with additional collections to increase...
Published: 12-19-2016
TDWG 2016: Highlights for biodiversity research
The Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) annual meeting in 2016 had the theme of "Standards Supporting Innovation in Biodiversity and Conservation". Understanding the use of biodiversity standards, and having clear and concise documentation, is essential for the creation, aggregation and downstream use of biodiversity data,...
Published: 12-13-2016
Contributed by Libby Ellwood and Austin Mast (iDigBio-Florida State University).
The second annual Worldwide Engagement for Digitizing Biocollections (WeDigBio) event took place October 20-23, 2016 and built on the success of last year’s inaugural event to expand the reach of citizen science transcription to new participants. Transcription is an essential part of the digitization process...
Published: 12-13-2016
The iDigBio Education and Outreach Working Group collaborated with the Smithsonian Institution on a two-day workshop entitled Incorporating K-12 Outreach into Digitized Collections Programs held December 5-6, 2016, at Q?rius, The Coralyn W. Whitney Science Education Center at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. The workshop was attended by 30 participants...
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