iCollections methodology: workflow, results and lessons learned

Blagoderov, Vladimir; Penn, MG; Sadka, Mike; Hine, Adrian; Brooks, Stephen; Siebert, Darrell; Sleep, Chris; Cafferty, Steve; Cane, Elisa; Martin, Geoff; Toloni, Flavia; Wing, Peter; Chainey, John; Duffell, Liz; Huxley, Rob; Ledger, Sophie; McLaughlin, Caitlin; Mazzetta, Gerardo; Perera, J; Crowther, Robyn; Douglas, Lyndsey; Durant, Joanna; Honey, Martin; Huertas, B; Howard, Theresa; Carter, Victoria; Albuquerque, Sara; Paterson, Gordon; Kitching, I

Issue Date

2017-09-25

Submitted Date

2017-09

Subject Terms

digitisation
georeferencing
sites
collection
database
workflow
museum

Collections

Life sciences

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Abstract

The Natural History Museum, London (NHMUK) has embarked on an ambitious programme to digitise its collections. The first phase of this programme was to undertake a series of pilot projects to develop the workflows and infrastructure needed to support mass digitisation of very large scientific collections. This paper presents the results of one of the pilot projects – iCollections. This project digitised all the lepidopteran specimens usually considered as butterflies, 181,545 specimens representing 89 species from the British Isles and Ireland. The data digitised includes, species name, georeferenced location, collector and collection date - the what, where, who and when of specimen data. In addition, a digital image of each specimen was taken. A previous paper explained the way the data were obtained and the background to the collections that made up the project. The present paper describes the technical, logistical, and economic aspects of managing the project.

Citation

Blagoderov V, Penn M, Sadka M, Hine A, Brooks S, Siebert D, Sleep C, Cafferty S, Cane E, Martin G, Toloni F, Wing P, Chainey J, Duffell L, Huxley R, Ledger S, McLaughlin C, Mazzetta G, Perera J, Crowther R, Douglas L, Durant J, Honey M, Huertas B, Howard T, Carter V, Albuquerque S, Paterson G, Kitching I (2017) iCollections methodology: workflow, results and lessons learned. Biodiversity Data Journal 5: e19893. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.5.e19893

Type

Journal Article

Item Description

This is an open access article, available to all readers online, published under a creative commons licensing (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The attached file is the published version of the article.
NHM Repository

ISSN

1314-2836

EISSN

1314-2828