Digitisation of insect collections An Australian perspective

Transcription

1 Digitisation of insect collections An Australian perspective Beth Mantle Pacific Science Inter-Congress, Suva, Fiji 10 July 2013 AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL INSECT COLLECTION

2 Infrastructure: the IT world since : GBIF created for publishing biodiversity occurrence data. Wikipedia socialising knowledge. Creative Commons licence agreements for sharing of knowledge. 2003: Skype enabling face to face discussions globally. 2004: Facebook - social networking. 2005: Twitter social networking. Cloud computing commoditising file sharing and repositories. 2007: iphones; ALA (2007/08) commenced; GBIF portal launched. 2010: ipads; ultra-mobile devices. Digitisation of insect collections Beth Mantle Page

3 Why digitise? Develop Infrastructure: Enduring framework that evolves with IT. User-friendly and well integrated into contemporary IT solutions. Create Community Clearly articulates purpose and mission with collections. Maintain true partnerships with users and publishers. Deliver Data Exposes currency, reliability and authority data (fitness for use). Support data management: digitisation, annotations and changes, unique identifiers. Flexible and connected: specimens, tissues, images, DNA, etc. Represents best practice for publishers and users. Presentation title Presenter name Page

4 Convert data from physical collections into Digitisation of insect collections Beth Mantle Page

5 dynamic web-based knowledge products while Digitisation of insect collections Beth Mantle Page

6 contributing to best practice Collection Management. Digitisation of insect collections Beth Mantle Page

7 Challenges facing digitisation of insect collections Large numbers of specimens and taxa. Identifications difficult, uncertain or unavailable. Specimens are fragile. Label data hidden beneath large specimens. Small specimens hard to see. Digitisation of insect collections Beth Mantle Page

8 Current rates of digitisation Digitisation of insect collections Beth Mantle Page

9 Australian publishers of insect data Digitisation of insect collections Beth Mantle Page

10 How much more to go? Digitisation of insect collections Beth Mantle Page

11 Imaging methods Whole drawer imaging Provide virtual access to specimens in collections. QM: Hasselblad + Visionary Digital BK. Stack shot system. Resolution = 200 MP ANIC: TM SatScan system. Tile and stitch method. Up to 60 drawers per day. Resolution ~ 210 MP Digitisation of insect collections Beth Mantle Page

12 Imaging methods Holotype imaging Digitisation of insect collections Beth Mantle Page South Australian Museum & CHAEC-ALA Showcase project: Bees and cicadas. Leica M205 + BK Passport. Dataset available though the ALA. ANIC HT imaging underway.

13 Imaging methods Bulk sample imaging Samples collected by malaise traps, flight intercept traps etc. Stored in ethanol. AM & ANIC: DSLR on copy stand & SatScan system. Image tagging useful even at Family level. Unlocking information: Diversity at sites. Record of taxa before destructive analysis. Digitisation of insect collections Beth Mantle Page

14 Developing workflow Digitisation of insect collections Beth Mantle Page

15 Acquiring metadata In-museum databasing: Slow. Resource limited. Images and online repositories: Flickr & (?) Morphbank. How to link with in-museum systems? Avoiding repetition of data entry effort. Placing information access in the hands of the user. Digitisation of insect collections Beth Mantle Page

16 Prioritise metadata capture Not realistic to capture everything: Taxonomic ID Locality Collector Date Combine with specimen/label image user extracts additional data, e.g. habitat, host species, collector, life stage. Target themes : primary types, pollinators, iconic species. Digitisation of insect collections Beth Mantle Page

17 Collection management Mount Lewis Bluestreak Lestoidea lewisiana Digitisation of insect collections Beth Mantle Page

18 Collection management Digitisation of insect collections Beth Mantle Page

19 Digitisation: benefits and outcomes Provide virtual access to specimens and data. Encourage remote curation of unsorted specimens. Deliver specimen metadata. Provide a method for auditing the collection. Contribute to collection management practices, e.g. loans. Permit morphometric analysis of specimens. Promote community engagement. Improve data quality and FFU. Digitisation of insect collections Beth Mantle Page

20 Acknowledgements: Thank you Australian National Insect Collection Beth Mantle t e w beth.mantle@csiro.au CSIRO ECOSYSTEM SCIENCES Alexis Tindall Paul Flemons Geoff Thompson Nicole Fisher Joanne Daly Australian National Insect Collection curatorial team Atlas of Living Australia team CSIRO Staff Development Fund