scholarly journals Digitization and the future of natural history collections

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brandon Hedrick ◽  
Mason Heberling ◽  
Emily Meineke ◽  
Kathryn Turner ◽  
Christopher Grassa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Global Change ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Anthropogenic Impacts ◽  
Digital Content ◽  
Global Community ◽  
New Approaches ◽  
Natural History Collections ◽  
The Future ◽  
Data Linkages

Natural history collections (NHCs) are the foundation of historical baselines for assessing anthropogenic impacts on biodiversity. Along these lines, the online mobilization of specimens via digitization–the conversion of specimen data into accessible digital content–has greatly expanded the use of NHC collections across a diversity of disciplines. We broaden the current vision of digitization (Digitization 1.0)–whereby specimens are digitized within NHCs–to include new approaches that rely on digitized products rather than the physical specimen (Digitization 2.0). Digitization 2.0 builds upon the data, workflows, and infrastructure produced by Digitization 1.0 to create digital-only workflows that facilitate digitization, curation, and data linkages, thus returning value to physical specimens by creating new layers of annotation, empowering a global community, and developing automated approaches to advance biodiversity discovery and conservation. These efforts will transform large-scale biodiversity assessments to address fundamental questions including those pertaining to critical modern issues of global change.

scholarly journals Digitization and the future of natural history collections

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brandon Hedrick ◽  
Mason Heberling ◽  
Emily Meineke ◽  
Kathryn Turner ◽  
Christopher Grassa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Global Change ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Anthropogenic Impacts ◽  
Digital Content ◽  
Global Community ◽  
New Approaches ◽  
Natural History Collections ◽  
The Future ◽  
Data Linkages

Natural history collections (NHCs) are the foundation of historical baselines for assessing anthropogenic impacts on biodiversity. Along these lines, the online mobilization of specimens via digitization–the conversion of specimen data into accessible digital content–has greatly expanded the use of NHC collections across a diversity of disciplines. We broaden the current vision of digitization (Digitization 1.0)–whereby specimens are digitized within NHCs–to include new approaches that rely on digitized products rather than the physical specimen (Digitization 2.0). Digitization 2.0 builds upon the data, workflows, and infrastructure produced by Digitization 1.0 to create digital-only workflows that facilitate digitization, curation, and data linkages, thus returning value to physical specimens by creating new layers of annotation, empowering a global community, and developing automated approaches to advance biodiversity discovery and conservation. These efforts will transform large-scale biodiversity assessments to address fundamental questions including those pertaining to critical modern issues of global change.

scholarly journals Digitization and the Future of Natural History Collections

BioScience ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 70 (3) ◽  
pp. 243-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brandon P Hedrick ◽  
J Mason Heberling ◽  
Emily K Meineke ◽  
Kathryn G Turner ◽  
Christopher J Grassa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Global Change ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Anthropogenic Impacts ◽  
Digital Content ◽  
Global Community ◽  
New Approaches ◽  
Natural History Collections ◽  
Data Links ◽  
Critical Issues

Abstract Natural history collections (NHCs) are the foundation of historical baselines for assessing anthropogenic impacts on biodiversity. Along these lines, the online mobilization of specimens via digitization—the conversion of specimen data into accessible digital content—has greatly expanded the use of NHC collections across a diversity of disciplines. We broaden the current vision of digitization (Digitization 1.0)—whereby specimens are digitized within NHCs—to include new approaches that rely on digitized products rather than the physical specimen (Digitization 2.0). Digitization 2.0 builds on the data, workflows, and infrastructure produced by Digitization 1.0 to create digital-only workflows that facilitate digitization, curation, and data links, thus returning value to physical specimens by creating new layers of annotation, empowering a global community, and developing automated approaches to advance biodiversity discovery and conservation. These efforts will transform large-scale biodiversity assessments to address fundamental questions including those pertaining to critical issues of global change.

scholarly journals Using insect natural history collections to study global change impacts: challenges and opportunities

2018 ◽  
Vol 374 (1763) ◽  
pp. 20170405 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather M. Kharouba ◽  
Jayme M. M. Lewthwaite ◽  
Rob Guralnick ◽  
Jeremy T. Kerr ◽  
Mark Vellend
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Global Change ◽  
Global Changes ◽  
Genomic Information ◽  
Theme Issue ◽  
The Past ◽  
Natural History Collections ◽  
Global Change Research ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities

Over the past two decades, natural history collections (NHCs) have played an increasingly prominent role in global change research, but they have still greater potential, especially for the most diverse group of animals on Earth: insects. Here, we review the role of NHCs in advancing our understanding of the ecological and evolutionary responses of insects to recent global changes. Insect NHCs have helped document changes in insects' geographical distributions, phenology, phenotypic and genotypic traits over time periods up to a century. Recent work demonstrates the enormous potential of NHCs data for examining insect responses at multiple temporal, spatial and phylogenetic scales. Moving forward, insect NHCs offer unique opportunities to examine the morphological, chemical and genomic information in each specimen, thus advancing our understanding of the processes underlying species’ ecological and evolutionary responses to rapid, widespread global changes. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Biological collections for understanding biodiversity in the anthropocene’.

scholarly journals Commentary: We Are a Global Community: What if We Collaborated?

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-46
Author(s):  
Julie Lindsay
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Collaborative Learning ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Global Community ◽  
Connected Learning ◽  
Global Context ◽  
New Approaches ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future ◽  
Pedagogical Approaches

Connected and collaborative learning that leads to co-creation of ideas and solutions is imperative across all levels of education. To make the shift we want to see, we need to understand the pedagogy of online learning in a global context. This commentary shares an understanding of thought leaders who have developed and shared new approaches that take learning beyond the immediate environment sca olded by digital technologies. It also poses the question, "What if we collaborated as a global community?" and starts a conversation about new pedagogical approaches to support " at," connected learning. This is already happening now—the future is now— it’s time to connect the world.

A Long View of Archaeological Collections Care, Preservation, and Management

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 217-223
Author(s):  
Danielle M. Benden ◽  
Mara C. Taft
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Thematic Issue ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
American Institute ◽  
Natural History Collections ◽  
Archaeological Collections ◽  
The Future ◽  
Care Practices ◽  
Collections Care ◽  
Innovative Techniques

AbstractCollections care practices have become professionalized in the last 30 years, in large part because of the work of organizations such as the American Alliance of Museums, the Canadian Conservation Institute, the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections, the American Institute for Conservation, and others in the museum sphere. Advances in preservation and management have benefited the discipline of archaeology in the field and laboratory. This thematic issue provides an updated perspective on the current happenings in the repository, highlighting innovative techniques and practices that collections specialists employ when managing the archaeological record. This article considers a macroview of the issues surrounding archaeological curation today and ponders what the future of collections preservation can and should look like.

scholarly journals The colonial legacy of herbaria

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
DA S Park ◽  
Xiao Feng ◽  
Shinobu Akiyama ◽  
Marlina Ardiyani ◽  
Neida Avendano ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Global Change ◽  
Inverse Relationship ◽  
Plant Biodiversity ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Colonial Legacy ◽  
Natural History Collections ◽  
History Of ◽  
Global North ◽  
Herbarium Collections

Herbarium collections shape our understanding of the world's flora and are crucial for addressing global change and biodiversity conservation. The formation of such natural history collections, however, are not free from sociopolitical issues of immediate relevance. Despite increasing efforts addressing issues of representation and colonialism in natural history collections, herbaria have received comparatively less attention. While it has been noted that the majority of plant specimens are housed in the global North, the extent of this disparity has not been rigorously quantified to date. Here, by analyzing over 85 million specimen records and surveying herbaria across the globe, we assess the colonial legacy of botanical collections and how we may move towards a more inclusive future. We demonstrate that colonial exploitation has contributed to an inverse relationship between where plant biodiversity exists in nature and where it is housed in herbaria. Such disparities persist in herbaria across physical and digital realms despite overt colonialism having ended over half a century ago, suggesting ongoing digitization and decolonization efforts have yet to alleviate colonial-era discrepancies. We emphasize the need for acknowledging the inconvenient history of herbarium collections and the implementation of a more equitable, global paradigm for their collection, curation, and use.

The Role of Legislation in Sustaining Environment Change and Creating a Better Quality of Life for Global Community.

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rohani Mohd Shah ◽  
Nuraisyah Chua Abdullah ◽  
Hamisah Abd. Rahman ◽  
Zaliha Husin
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Global Change ◽  
Built Environment ◽  
Future Generation ◽  
Global Community ◽  
Environment Change ◽  
The Future ◽  
Public Perspective

The role of legislation has always been misunderstood. Whenever there is legislation, the universal public perspective will be that it is connected and related to sanction and long and unclear sentences. Law in built environment and global change is about control and manage the quality and standard of life. The role of legislation is to assist a better quality of life and secure the same for the future generation. If no legislation to sustain the same meaning of quality, especially in the Asian communities how does the behavior be condoned. Hence role of legislation is maintaining fairness, in a community. 

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document