GEOLOCATE, A PLATFORM FOR GEOREFERENCING LEGACY COLLECTION DATA

Georeferencing natural history collection data is a critical step in a progression that starts with digitizing collection records, continues through databasing and networking, and ultimately gives researchers access to the vast specimen and data resources of natural history museums. Yet, the vast number of collection records in need of georeferencing and verification requires human resources beyond that which the natural history collections community alone can deliver using traditional approaches for georeferencing. The goal of the GEOLocate project is to overcome this impediment through intelligent workflows, software and services for automated georeferencing, validation and verification of specimen occurrence data. This presentation will provide an overview of the GEOLocate project, and analysis of automated georeferencing performance metrics and introduce web application interfaces for georeferencing.