IDigBio

Integrated Digitized Biocollections (iDigBio)

File:Idigbio og.png
Gainesville, Florida
Established	2011
Location	105 NW 16th St., Gainesville, Florida
Type	NSF Funded Grant
Website	Official website

iDigBio, Integrated Digitized Biocollections, is the National Resource funded by the National Science Foundation for Advancing Digitization of Biodiversity Collections (ADBC). Through iDigBio, data and images for millions of biological specimens are being curated, connected and made available in electronic format for the biological research community, government agencies, students, educators, and the general public. The mission of iDigBio is to develop a national infrastructure that supports the vision of ADBC by overseeing implementation of standards and best practices for digitization; building and deploying a customized cloud computing environment for collections; recruiting and training personnel, including underserved groups; engaging the research community, collections community, citizen scientists, and the public through education and outreach activities; and planning for long-term sustainability of the national digitization effort. In addition to the iDigBio central digitization HUB, there are partner institutions referred to as “Thematic Collection Networks” (TCNs) and associated “Partners To Existing Networks (PENs) which consists of networks of institutions with a strategy for digitizing information that addresses a particular research theme. Through the iDigBio HUB cyberinfrastructure, compilation and the inter-linking of data from the TCNs and existing collaborative databases will create opportunities to address research questions and education interests regarding biodiversity, climate change, species invasions, natural disasters, and the spread of pests and diseases. New TCNs will be funded in succeeding years based on solicitations from NSF. The iDigBio HUB is based at the University of Florida (UF), in partnership with Florida State University (FSU).

Digitization of mammal specimens using a lightbox and camera

Project Mission

The mission of iDigBio is to develop a national infrastructure that supports the vision of ADBC by overseeing implementation of standards and best practices for digitization; building and deploying a customized cloud computing environment for collections; recruiting and training personnel, including underserved groups; engaging the research community, collections community, citizen scientists, and the public through education and outreach activities; and planning for long-term sustainability of the national digitization effort.

iDigBio will enable digitization of data from all U.S. biological collections and integrate those data to make them broadly available and useful with shared standards and formats. Ultimately, ADBC will further the discovery and understanding of biological diversity, and iDigBio will engage the research, collections, and education communities in a spirit of collaboration that will open biological research collections to new downstream user communities. The vision for ADBC is a permanent repository of digitized information from all U.S. biological collections that leads to new discoveries through research and a better understanding and appreciation of biodiversity through improved outreach, which then leads to improved environmental and economic policies. Creation of the permanent digitized repository is occurring in four stages:

1. An initial stage where the effort to digitize U.S. biological collections is catalyzed by funding from NSF and enabled by iDigBio activities that foster collaborations, identify priorities, demonstrate the value of biodiversity and collections, and generate information on best practices related to standards, workflows, and data management.
2. An intermediate stage where digitization at Thematic Collections Networks (TCNs), Partners to Existing Networks (PENs), and other participating institutions/networks improves methods and strategies and demonstrates the scientific and societal benefits of validated and readily accessible data.
3. A third stage in which the vision for ADBC is realized through participation by all U.S. institutions with biological collections.
4. A fourth stage in which digitization is a routine and sustained practice in all institutions with biological collections, and the national database is easily accessible as an up-to-date source of information on biodiversity

Project Scope

Digitizing herbarium specimens

iDigBio is the national resource for digitized information about vouchered natural history collections within the context established by the NIBA community strategic plan and is supported through funds from the NSF ADBC program. As such, iDigBio serves as the administrative home for the national digitization effort; fosters partnerships and innovations; facilitates the determination and dissemination of digitization practices and workflows; establishes integration and interconnectivity among the data generated by collection digitization projects; and promotes the uses of biological/paleontological collections data by the scientific community and stakeholders including government agencies, educational institutions, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and other national and international entities to benefit science and society through enhanced research, educational, and outreach activities. iDigBio provides these services to all stakeholders with clarity, simplicity, transparency, intuitive methodology, and intuitive design.

TCNs (Current)

Thematic Collections Networks (TCN)

Each Thematic Collections Network (TCN) is a network of institutions with a strategy for digitizing information that addresses a particular research theme, such as impacts of climate change or biota of a region. Once digitized, data are easily accessed and available for other research and educational use. Other institutions and collections may join an existing TCN as a Partner to Existing Network (PEN). The following are the TCNs, and any associated PENs, currently funded by the Advancing Digitization of Biodiversity Collections (ADBC) project:

• (TCN) InvertNet: An Integrative Platform for Research on Environmental Change, Species Discovery and Identification
• (TCN) Plants, Herbivores and Parasitoids: A Model System for the Study of Tri-Trophic Associations (TTD)
• (TCN) North American Lichens and Bryophytes: Sensitive Indicators of Environmental Quality and Change (LBCC)
• (TCN) Mobilizing New England Vascular Plant Specimen Data to Track Environmental Change (NEVP)
• (TCN) Digitizing Fossils to Enable New Syntheses in Biogeography- Creating a PALEONICHES (Paleoniches)
• (TCN) The Macrofungi Collection Consortium: Unlocking a Biodiversity Resource for Understanding Biotec Interactions, Nutrient Cycling and Human Affairs (MaCC)
• (TCN) Southwest Collections of Arthropods Network (SCAN): A Model for Collections Digitization to Promote Taxonomic and Ecological Research (SCAN)
• (TCN) Fossil Insect Collaborative: A Deep-Time Approach to Studying Diversification and Response to Environmental Change (FIC)
• (TCN) Developing a Centralized Digital Archive of Vouchered Animal Communication Signals (VACS)
• (TCN) The Macroalgal Herbarium Consortium: Accessing 150 Years of Specimen Data to Understand Changes in the Marine/Aquatic Environment (MHC)
• (TCN) Documenting the Occurrence through Space and Time of Aquatic Non-indigenous Fish, Mollusks, Algae, and Plants Threatening North America's Great Lakes (GLI)
• (TCN) InvertEBase: Reaching Back to See the Future: Species-rich Invertebrate Faunas Document Causes and Consequences of Biodiversity Shifts (InvertEBse)
• (TCN) The Key to the Cabinets: Building and Sustaining a Research Database for a Global Biodiversity Hotspot (SERNEC)

PENs (Current)

Partner to Existing Network (PEN)

• (PEN) 2012 Digitization of North American Bryophyte and Lichen Specimens from Florida Herbaria
• (PEN) 2012 Addressing Colorado Lichens and Bryophytes as Sensitive Indicators of Environmental Quality and Change
• (PEN) 2013 Digitizing the University of Iowa Museum of Natural History's Historic Invertebrate Collections through the InvertNet TCN
• (PEN) 2013 Targeted Digitization to Expand and Enhance the PALEONICHES TCN
• (PEN) 2013 Increasing the Robustness of the Ordovician and Pennsylvanian Dataset of PALEONICHES-TCN
• (PEN) 2013 Facilitating a Shared Image Library and Occurrence Database for Ants of the Southwest as Part of the SCAN TCN
• (PEN) 2013 Digitization of Two Important Medium-sized Collections to Join the North American Bryophytes and Lichens TCN
• (PEN) 2014 Partnership to Existing Macrofungi Collection Consortium--Digitization of an Important Regional Collection of Macrofungi at the Pringle Herbarium
• (PEN) 2014 Digitization of North American Bryophyte and Lichen Specimens from Two Ohio Herbaria at the University of Cincinnati (CINC)
• (PEN) 2014 Ground-dwelling Insects in the Brigham Young University Collection, Enhancement to SCAN

External links

• Official website
• Florida Museum of Natural History