BUILDING A CASE FOR INSTITUTIONAL REPOSITORIES: DIGITIZATION AS AN AUGMENTATION OF THE IMPACT OF NATURAL HISTORY COLLECTIONS AT HOME AND ABROAD

The natural history collections at Indiana University and worldwide are undergoing a digital revolution. Access to botany, geology, paleobiology, and zooarchaeology collections is increasingly advanced by novel mechanisms that rely upon multiple technological innovations including 3-D scanning and printing, artificial intelligence and machine learning, augmented reality, virtual reality, ultra-high resolution imaging, and the use of distributed cyberinfrastructure and high-performance computing resources.

The treasures gathered by generations of researchers are increasingly made accessible via web interfaces and smartphone apps that bring these resources to light and into public view. Institutional administrators, undergraduate students, research collaborators, and others are becoming more committed to enhancing the value of these collections and are discovering what may have been collecting dust in the back closet of a classroom or museum. These collections have worth far greater than the sum of their parts and valuable ‘real estate’ is a factor to consider when prioritizing the contribution of additional institutional resources toward their curation, management, and preservation. This talk demonstrates the numerous workflows undertaken in digitizing these collections and a vision of the potential impact that is beginning to emerge. For a community that values the ability to do more with less, we will share successes, failures, lessons learned, and reflections on what the future may bring.