Context: The Strategic Plan for Establishing the Network Integrated Biocollections

Alliance

Judith E. Skog, Office of the Assistant Director,

Biological Sciences Directorate, NSF

July 12, 2012

The Problems• 250 years of biodiversity information and specimens housed in collections• Difficult to find what is already known

• Without information on what is known, identifying knowledge gaps impossible & climate change effects unreliable

• Clone specimens may be stored in different museums

• Analyses may be conducted on one but not the other (i.e., DNA, SEM)

• Ancillary data may not be linked to specimens (i.e. field notes, audio record)

NSF Activities

• Set up a focus group to develop an appropriate assessment questionnaire for the non federal collections

• Held at AMNH in NY with variety of collections represented• Questionnaire was approved by OMB and those collections

that had received support from NSF were surveyed• At the end of the survey, about 72% of those surveyed

responded with information.• Clear that collections needed additional funds in order to

digitize and mobilize data

Summary of NSF survey of collections produced

Major Needs of Research Collections

• Enhanced coordination and networking among collections and curators.

• Finding and retaining expertise to curate the growing number of collections.

• Reducing the risk of loss from decay, pests, and other factors.

Major Needs of Research Collections

• Improvement in the accessibility of collections and interoperability of data networks.

• The development of new tools to enable exchange of data.

Next StepsDevelop a plan to engage and mobilize the collections community to answer the question:What would a focused, ten-year campaign to digitize existing collections look like?

Held two focus group meetings to develop a community strategic planHosted wiki for broad input

• Integrated resource for all biodiversity collections• Searchable on several parameters

e.g. biota, environment, biological interactions, ancillary data• National coordination hub - oversight, technology, & training• Integrating existing efforts nationally & internationally i.e., VertNet, Virtual Herbaria GBIF, etc. • Thematic hubs - digitization• Collections institutions

Plan Highlights

NSF Program • Community plan outlined program goals• NSF assessed programs to see what was

available– Individual collections and regional or clade based

activities supported through Collections Improvements program

– Tools supported through informatics and instrumentation programs

• Two items in plan had no place for funding– The Central coordinating resource for digitization

projects– Digitization based on research challenges

Advancing Digitization of Biological Collections

• 10 year effort to digitize as many of the U.S. owned collections as possible

• Invest at least 10 million dollars per year• Be innovative because doing it the way always

done won’t get the job completed• Establish the central resource • Start Thematic Collections Networks based on

major research challenges

What does Digitization include?

• Database information & digital images of specimens

• Ready web access

• Links to ancillary data for specimens e.g.

- Georeferences (GPS points)- Microscopic images (e.g., SEM)- Molecular data (e.g., DNA sequences)- Environmental data- Other information e.g. sounds, 3-D images, developmental stages

ADBC Program criteria• Digitization of existing curated nonfederal US collections

• Collaborative networks of collections around research theme

• Information Assessment of existing resources and ancillary material in light of grand research challenge

• New tools in connection with the ongoing project

• Innovative processes to lower cost & increase efficiency

• Training students across informatics • and domains

• Involvement of citizen scientists

• Integration of data through iDigBio

Cyberinfrastructure Needs• Storage – 2D & 3D images• Access – allow queries to data• Better OCR• Improved Voice Recognition• Linking of data across resources• Automated workflows - efficient data processing specific

to collection needs• Handling great diversity of specimens