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People are involved with the collection and curation of all biodiversity data, whether they are researchers, members of the public, taxonomists, conservationists, collection managers or wildlife managers. Knowing who those people are and connecting their biographical information to the biodiversity data they collect helps us contextualise their scientific work. We are particularly concerned with those people and communities involved in the collection and identification of biological specimens. People from herbaria and natural science museums have been collecting and preserving specimens from all over the world for more than 200 years. The problem is that many of these people are only known by unstandardized names written on specimen labels, often with only initials and without any biographical information. The process of identifying and linking individuals to their biographies enables us to improve the quality of the data held by collections while also quantifying the contributions of the often underappreciated people who collected and identified these specimens. This process improves our understanding of the history of collecting, and addresses current and future needs for maintaining the provenance of specimens so as to comply with national and international practices and regulations. In this talk we will outline the steps that collection managers, data scientists, curators, software engineers, and collectors can take to work towards fully disambiguated collections. With examples, we can show how they can use these data to help them in their work, in the evaluation of their collections, and in measuring the impact of individuals and organisations, local to global.
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Natural History Collections: What Are They and Why Do We Need Them?
Biodiversity is the word used to describe the rich variety of life on Earth. Right now, Earth’s biodiversity is threatened. Museums, zoos, and other kinds of natural history collections help to protect biodiversity. One way they do this is by helping researchers study life on Earth. Another way is by teaching people, through exhibits and events. Natural history collections face many challenges. One challenge is getting enough money to stay open. Another is finding new space as collections grow. Finally, some people who want to use and learn from collections cannot access them because they are not nearby. Museum collections are now putting information on the internet, so that many people can access and use it. We can all help natural history collections to continue protecting Earth’s biodiversity by visiting them, volunteering, and donating specimens or other resources.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2210800
- PAR ID:
- 10567241
- Publisher / Repository:
- Frontiers In
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Frontiers for Young Minds
- Volume:
- 11
- ISSN:
- 2296-6846
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.3389/frym.2023.1048608
