Biological Collections Digitization: Towards Capture and Mobilization of Biodiversity Information Resources

生物收藏是研究和应用生物学的重要国家资源，但这些数据仍然普遍无法以数字形式获得。根据现有标本数据开发数字生物多样性信息资源，将为今后的研究活动提供宝贵的参考和基线。该奖项将组织和主办两次规划会议，将把收藏品研究人员和馆长、自然历史信息学专家和生物标本成像专家聚集在一起，制定和发布一项十年战略计划，其中将包括应对数据数字化挑战的定向回应。战略规划项目将确定与生物收藏数字化相关的问题，以确定解决标本信息捕获和动员问题的计划的任务、范围和规模，建立一个社区驱动的框架，以制定、促进、修订和分发生物收藏数字化的战略计划，并让来自不同收藏和机构的个人参与规划和实施协调收藏数字化倡议。通过使用收藏品获得的生物多样性知识，对于研究入侵物种、生物保护计划、土地管理战略、对气候变化的生物反应、病原体的传播以及各种研究和管理活动至关重要。协调努力将现有的生物收藏数字化，并在网上免费提供数据和图像，这将对美国的科学成就和全球科学合作产生重大、积极的影响。

Biological collections represent a significant national resource for research and applied biology, but these data are still widely unavailable in digital form. Development of a digital biodiversity information resource based on existing specimen data will provide an invaluable reference and baseline for future research activities. This award will organize and host two planning meetings that will bring together collections researchers and curators, natural history informatics specialists, and biological specimen imaging experts to develop and publish a 10-year strategic plan that will comprise a directed response toward meeting the data digitization challenge. The strategic planning project will identify issues relevant to the digitization of biological collections that will define the mission, scope, and magnitude of a program to address the capture and mobilization of specimen information, establish a community driven framework to develop, promote, revise, and distribute a strategic plan for biological collections digitization; and engage individuals from across diverse collections and institutions in the planning and implementation of a coordinated collections digitization initiative. Knowledge of biodiversity, obtained through the use of collections, is critically important for studies of invasive species, biological conservation programs, land management strategies, biotic responses to climate change, the spread of pathogenic organisms, and research and management activities of many kinds. A coordinated effort to digitize existing biological collections and to mobilize the data and images in a freely available online will have major, positive impacts on U.S. scientific achievement and global scientific collaboration.