TCN Resources

These resources are an at-a-glance introduction to existing Thematic Collection Networks (TCNs), including a volunteer contact and their email for each project, and some rudimentary information about the organisms in their proposal. This information hopes to be an aid to anyone writing a proposal, or who has recently received funding and is looking for tips and advice.

TCN Lightening Round Progress Reports at Summit 3, November 2013

Each TCN gave a succinct digitization progress report: https://www.idigbio.org/content/idigbio-summit-iii-0

TCNs at a Glance

Below is a table of TCN project information. RDCNs are added below for completeness since they work closely with thematic networks.

Note: the number of anticipated specimens and images to be digitized is approximate.

TCN	Date	Contact with Email	Digitization Methodology	Workflow	Software	Organisms	# of Specimens/Images	# of Collaborators
InvertNet (website)	2011	Christopher Dietrich	robotic scanning of vials, slides and drawers, crowd-sourcing of label data from images			arthropods	56.1M / .89M	14 (1 PEN) (Map)
Tri-trophic (TTD)	2011	Katja Seltmann (insects), Rob Naczi (plants)	imaging herbarium sheets with the eBioBox		Arthropod Easy Capture, Symbiota	insects (Hemiptera, Hymenoptera) and vascular plants	1.6M (insects) 6.1M (plants) / 611,000	32 (Map)
Lichens & Bryophytes (LBCC)	2011	Corinna Gries, Tom Nash‎‎, Ed Gilbert‎	label imaging, using OCR for data capture	workflow	Symbiota	lichens & bryophytes	2.3M / 2.3M	73 (3 PENs) (Map)
New England Vascular Plants (NEVP)	2012	Patrick Sweeney	robotic scanning apparatus for herbarium sheets, specimen-by-specimen label data capture		Symbiota, EMu	vascular plants	1.29M / 1.29M	18 (Map)
PaleoNICHES	2012	Bruce Lieberman	specimen-by-specimen label data capture		Specify	fossils: arthropods, brachiopods, echinoderms, and mollusks	650K / 3600	8 (2 PENs) (Map)
MacroFungi Collection Consortium (MaCC)	2012	Barbara Thiers	label imaging, crowd-sourcing of label data		Symbiota	macrofungi	1.39M / 1.3M	34 (Map)
Southwest Collections of Arthropods (SCAN)	2012	Neil Cobb	visionary digital workflow, specimen-by-specimen label data capture		Symbiota	ground dwelling arthropods	.73M / 15,125	15 (1 PEN) (Map)
Fossil Insect Collaborative (FIC)	2013	Dena Smith	visionary digital workflow, most specimen data already captured		Specify, EMu and other (for home institutions) - developing the iDigPaleo Portal for our main interface.	fossil insects	500k/200k	9 (Map)
Vouchered Animal Communication Signals (VACS)	2013	Michael Webster	digitizing analog sound recordings, imaging specimens & labels			birds, frogs, fish and insects	58,374 / 22,939	7 (Map)
Macroalgal Herbarium Consortium (MHC)	2013	Chris Neefus	imaging herbarium sheets with the eBioBox			macroalgae	1.14M / 1.14M	49 (Map)

RDCNs at a Glance

RDCN	Contact with Email	Methodology	Organisms	# of Participants
VertNet	Dave Bloom	aggregator / facilitator	mammals, birds, fish, herps	mammals (), birds (), fish (12), herps (64)
Consortium of California Herbaria (CCH)	David Baxter	aggregator / facilitator	vascular plants	32
Fishnet2 Collaborative Georeferencing	Hank Bart, Jr.	georeferencing	fish
Mississippi Herbaria Consortium (Magnolia grandiFLORA)	Lucile McCook	aggregator / facilitator	plants
Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria	Ben Legler	aggregator / facilitator	plants
Texas Oklahoma Regional Consortia of Herbaria (TORCH)	Wayne Elisens	aggregator / facilitator	plants