TOWARDS DEMAND DRIVEN PUBLISHING: APPROCHES TO THE PRIORITISATION OF DIGITISATION OF NATURAL HISTORY COLLECTIONS DATA

Natural history collections represent a vast repository of biodiversity data of international significance. There is an imperative to capture the data through digitisation projects in order to expose the data to new and established users of biodiversity data. On the basis of review of current state of digitization of natural history collections, a demand driven approach is advocated through the use of metadata to promote and increase access to natural history collection data

Approaches to estimating the universe of natural history collections data

This contribution explores the problem of recognizing and measuring the universe of specimen-level data existing in Natural History Collections around the world, in absence of a complete, world-wide census or register. Estimates of size seem necessary to plan for resource allocation for digitization or data capture, and may help represent how many vouchered primary biodiversity data (in terms of collections, specimens or curatorial units) might remain to be mobilized. Three general approaches are proposed for further development, and initial estimates are given. Probabilistic models involve crossing data from a set of biodiversity datasets, finding commonalities and estimating the likelihood of totally obscure data from the fraction of known data missing from specific datasets in the set. Distribution models aim to find the underlying distribution of collections’ compositions, figuring out the occult sector of the distributions. Finally, case studies seek to compare digitized data from collections known to the world to the amount of data known to exist in the collection but not generally available or not digitized. Preliminary estimates range from 1.2 to 2.1 gigaunits, of which a mere 3% at most is currently web-accessible through GBIF’s mobilization efforts. However, further data and analyses, along with other approaches relying more heavily on surveys, might change the picture and possibly help narrow the estimate. In particular, unknown collections not having emerged through literature are the major source of uncertainty

"He knows me...but not at the museum": women, natural history collecting and museums, 1880-1914

This article examines women collectors of natural history during the period 1880-1914, their natural history practices, and their relationships with museums. It suggests that for women natural history collections could be used to create and modify gender identities

The Expanding Role of Natural History Collections

Museum specimens serve as the bedrock of systematic and taxonomic research and provide the basis for repeatability or reinterpretation of preserved aspects of phenotypes. Specimens are also fundamental to fields such as ecology, behavior, and development. Each specimen is a record of biodiversity and documents a particular species present at a particular place at a particular time. As such, specimens can provide key evidence for biodiversity and conservation initiatives. Four aspects of natural history collections and their use are discussed here: 1) collection, curation, and use of specimens, particularly non-traditional specimens; 2) the use of specimens and technological advances in morphology, ontogeny, systematics, and taxonomy; 3) specimen use in other fields of biology and ecology; and 4) specimen use in education and outreach. Collections, and their vitality, depend on both their continued roles in traditionally supported fields (e.g., taxonomy) as well as emerging arenas (e.g., epidemiology). Just as a library that ceases buying books becomes obsolete, or at least has diminished relevance, a natural history collection that does not continue to grow by adding new specimens ultimately will limit its utility. We discuss these roles of specimens and speak directly to the need to increase the visibility of the inherent value of natural history collections and the care of the specimens they protect for future generations

Climate Change and Biosphere Response: Unlocking the Collections Vault

Natural history collections (NHCs) are an important source of the long-term data needed to understand how biota respond to ongoing anthropogenic climate change. These include taxon occurrence data for ecological modeling, as well as information that can be used to reconstruct mechanisms through which biota respond to changing climates. The full potential of NHCs for climate change research cannot be fully realized until high-quality data sets are conveniently accessible for research, but this requires that higher priority be placed on digitizing the holdings most useful for climate change research (e.g., whole-biota studies, time series, records of intensively sampled common taxa). Natural history collections must not neglect the proliferation of new information from efforts to understand how present-day ecosystems are responding to environmental change. These new directions require a strategic realignment for many NHC holders to complement their existing focus on taxonomy and systematics. To set these new priorities, we need strong partnerships between NHC holders and global change biologists

Inselect: Automating the Digitization of Natural History Collections

Copyright: © 2015 Hudson et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. The attached file is the published version of the article

Sex biases in bird and mammal natural history collections.

Natural history specimens are widely used across ecology, evolutionary biology and conservation. Although biological sex may influence all of these areas, it is often overlooked in large-scale studies using museum specimens. If collections are biased towards one sex, studies may not be representative of the species. Here, we investigate sex ratios in over two million bird and mammal specimen records from five large international museums. We found a slight bias towards males in birds (40% females) and mammals (48% females), but this varied among orders. The proportion of female specimens has not significantly changed in 130 years, but has decreased in species with showy male traits like colourful plumage and horns. Body size had little effect. Male bias was strongest in name-bearing types; only 27% of bird and 39% of mammal types were female. These results imply that previous studies may be impacted by undetected male bias, and vigilance is required when using specimen data, collecting new specimens and designating types.Copyright and usage: © 2019 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved The attached file is the final approved manuscript (Author Generated Postprint), you are advised to consult the publisher’s version if you wish to cite from it