Digitization Workshop and Best Practices Development Session for the Texas Oklahoma Regional Consortium of Herbaria (TORCH) Texas Tech University, 8-10 April 2011

2011年4月8日至10日，将为德克萨斯州和俄克拉荷马州的36名植物研究收藏（植物标本馆）馆长举行为期3天的会议、数字化研讨会和最佳实践会议。 该活动将加强TORCH（得克萨斯州俄克拉荷马州地区植物标本联合会）收藏网络内的业务基础设施，并将培训植物标本馆馆长的数字化方法和网络技术。 该事件预计有三个主要结局： 1)增强TORCH的组织功能，以协调区域标本馆之间的数字化工作，2）参与的馆长和学生在生物多样性信息学工具，数字化技术和涉及自然历史收藏品数据共享和成像的国家倡议方面的实践学习，以及3）为TORCH社区制定最佳实践标准。该讲习班将帮助植物标本馆馆长开展合作，并作为国家生物收藏数字化举措的区域节点发挥作用。参加讲习班并获得差旅津贴是一种必要的激励措施，可确保区域馆长和研究生提供充分的投入，从而为未来的火炬计划活动提供最大的支持和承诺。 为植物标本馆数字化和数据动员制定一个合作管理计划和工作战略势在必行，这样TORCH就可以为联邦倡议做出贡献，如美国生物收藏资源/网络综合收藏联盟。德克萨斯州和俄克拉荷马州的350万个植物标本馆标本中所包含的数据的计划数字化和共享将大大增加这些数据对生物学家、生态学家、资源管理者和国家和国际层面的政策制定者的综合价值。

A 3-day meeting, digitization workshop, and best practices session will be held from 8 to 10 April 2011 for 36 curators of plant research collections (herbaria) throughout Texas and Oklahoma. This event will strengthen operational infrastructure within the TORCH (Texas Oklahoma Regional Consortium of Herbaria) collections network and will train herbarium curators in digitization methods and cybertechnologies. Three primary outcomes are anticipated from this event: 1) Enhancement of the organizational functionality of TORCH to coordinate digitization efforts among regional herbaria, 2) Hands-on learning among participating curators and students in biodiversity informatics tools, digitization techniques, and national initiatives involving data sharing and imaging of natural history collections, and 3) Development of best practice standards for the TORCH community. This workshop will prepare herbarium curators to collaborate and function as a regional node for national biological collections digitization initiatives.Workshop attendance supported by travel stipends is a necessary incentive to ensure sufficient input from regional curators and graduate students, thus engendering maximum support for and commitment to future TORCH activities. Development of a collaborative management plan and work strategy for herbarium digitization and data mobilization is imperative so that TORCH may contribute to federal initiatives such as the U.S. Biological Collections Resource/ Network Integrated Collections Alliance. The planned digitization and sharing of data contained in the 3.5 million herbarium specimens in Texas and Oklahoma will increase substantially the synthetic value of these data for biologists, ecologists, resource managers, and policy makers at the national and international level.