Large-scale digitisation options at the Natural History Museum, London

“We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom. The world henceforth will be run by synthesizers, people able to put together the right information at the right time, think critically about it, and make important choices”

E. O. Wilson | Harvard University

500 Years to digitise - forget it!

We need some fresh thinking

Stop thinking about individual specimens (especially types)!

We need to standardise & simplify

Focus on whole collections that have a standard form, e.g. draws & slides

Metadata capture is rate limiting• Surrogate and metadata don’t need to be captured together• Tie them back together with identifiers as required• Engaging the public (mechanical turk) with metadata capture• Its metadata capture we prioritise• We should digitise everything at low resolution• Low resolution images tell us 75% of what we want to know

Separate metadata capture from digitisation. Metadata is what you prioritise

Barcode Everything

No metadata recorded. We just add a standard number to specimens

SatScan Collectionsby smartdrive

High Resolution - Low Distortion

• LOW COST• Fast to use• UK company

Low tech reliable equipment

1mm Fossil zoomed in from imaged 500x500mm samples draw

Single moth from a 500x500mm display case imaged in full at 1000 DPI

Images are “good enough”

• High resolution• No distortion(No parallax or edge effects)

Indexing Conveyor

Inspection Module

Museum Trays

Camera

Loading / Unloading AreaLoading / Unloading Area

1.2 Mtr 1.2 Mtr

1 Mtr

700 mm

All dimensions are approximate – do not scale

SmartDrive TrayScan System with Infeed / Outfeed ConveyorConcept Illustration

Positioning Guides (Flites)

Conveyor approach for draws

Digitise whole collections quickly

SmartDrive MicroScan System with Microscope Slide Tray Loader on Gliding FrameworkConcept Illustration

Slide Tray Glide Mechanism

Inspection Module

SlideTrays with 'Locations'

Fibre Optic Illuminator

500mm

1200mm

All dimensions are approximate – do not scale

Conveyor approach 1 for slides

Conveyor approach 2 for slides

Metadata capture

• This is what we prioritise• Focus on topics - not taxa• We need to be innovative• Engage the public

Innovative metadata capture

Guiding Principles 1. “No specimen left behind” (for collections being digitised)2. Everything has a barcode (unique identifier)3. Universally agreed across NHM digitisation projects

Further issues • This approach is not appropriate for everything, but works for most!• Digital storage - NHM is not thinking clearly about this • Separating images of specimens from the main image• Moving specimens (see above)• Adding new specimens (temporary draws digitised) • Private or EU funding (its not science, however…)

Research on issues (handling, processing, storage) Public / wider engagement - mechanical turk aspects

Much less than 500 Years!

We need to build up the WHY case - what are the benefits

Summary

“Why Case” - Examples

• Supporting the monitoring of environmental change…

• Supporting biodiversity conservation…

• Supporting the sustainable economic use biodiversity…

• Supporting the preservation and use of biological collections…

• Supporting biodiversity research communities and networks…

• Supporting education and training activities…

We should prioritise metadata capture around these issuesWhere possible we should digitise (create surrogates of) everything

Controversially, I think digitisation should EVENTUALLY be part of our core business. Metadata capture is NOT part of our core business (it is externally fundable)

Also metadata capture is hard to predict - see Ed. Wilson’s quote

“We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom. The world henceforth will be run by synthesizers, people able to put together the right information at the right time, think critically about it, and make important choices”

E. O. Wilson | Harvard University