IDIGBIO: THE NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION’S NATIONAL RESOURCE FOR THE DIGITIZATION OF BIOLOGICAL AND PALEOBIOLOGICAL COLLECTIONS

Integrated Digitized Biocollections (iDigBio) is the National Science Foundation’s designated national resource for the digitization of biological and paleobiological collection objects held in non-federal collections within the United States. Launched in July 2011, the role of iDigBio is to enable and facilitate digitization activities, including coordinating the development and dissemination of workflows, providing training, building community, supporting working and interest groups, being a conduit for best practices and digitization specifications, providing a database and portal for storing and exposing data, and enhancing international collaboration with digitization practices. To date, iDigBio has conducted more than two dozen digitization-related workshops, coordinated several working and interest groups, and coordinated the development of digitization workflows for a variety of preparation types. The digitization of paleontology collections is a major focus of iDigBio, which has convened an ongoing working group focused on paleontology digitization practices and data structure, conducted three workshops focused on paleontology digitization, including a wide array of 2D, 3D, and CT strategies for imaging fossils, and worked closely with database designers to ensure efficient accommodation of paleontological data elements. The Paleo Digitization Working Group has sponsored several webinars on topics relevant to paleo digitization, and the Paleo Data subcommittee of the Paleo Digitization Working Group has been instrumental in developing a defensible data structure and providing input on data structure to the leadership of the Specify software project.