Digitization HUB: A Collections Digitization Framework for the 21st Century

生物多样性的加速丧失，即“生物多样性危机”，是21世纪世纪的主要环境和社会问题之一。 虽然自然生物多样性对一个健康和可持续的地球至关重要，但由于信息不完整，可持续利用自然资源的政策不充分，应对危机的措施受到影响。与应对生物多样性下降的影响有关的信息存放在国家自然历史和相关生物系统收藏中，但大多数研究人员和决策者无法获得。国家生物标本数字化资源（综合数字化生物收集; iDigBio）的成立是为了开发一个综合的国家基础设施，用于美国现有生物多样性收藏的数字化。iDigBio项目团队和基础设施提供领导，促进沟通，并协调TCN的数字化和教育活动通过iDigBio，数百万生物标本的数据通过定制的云计算以电子格式提供。 不同的数据，如分类学，地理位置，二维和三维图像，发声和分子资源，都与标本本身有关。这些数据促进了对活物种和化石物种的综合生物多样性研究，并为评估气候变化、入侵物种和其他环境问题的影响提供了巨大的基线。因此，iDigBio项目正在改变生物收集社区的文化，通过新技术，技术，培训和操作标准，使数字化成为一种标准做法iDigBio项目服务于几个目标受众和利益相关者，包括生物研究社区，进入专业的年轻生物学家，非联邦机构和公众。 这些受众正在通过各种活动参与，包括讲习班、小型重点小组、培训班、专业会议专题讨论会、在线网络研讨会以及通过iDigBio网站开发的相关电子学习机会。大学生通过课程、研讨会、指导、在线资源和个人研究来了解并参与这一国家数字化工作。由iDigBio支持的研究生助学金和年轻教师休假正在扩大代表性并使专业劳动力多样化。 iDigBio网站、通讯和展览向公众传播进展、发现和机会。iDigBio的目标，活动，产出和成果正在由非正式科学教育中心在UF进行评估。虽然iDigBio主要侧重于上述目标受众，但其产出和成果也将提供给联邦机构和国际利益攸关方。iDigBio的长期愿景是一个高度协调的生物收藏数字化社区，以满足从专业系统学家到普通公众的不同利益相关者的需求，并传达这一国家资源对推进21世纪世纪研究和教育的重要性。

The accelerated loss of biodiversity, the "Biodiversity Crisis", is one of the leading environmental and social issues of the 21st century. Although natural biological diversity is fundamentally important to a healthy and sustainable planet, responses to the crisis have suffered from incomplete information and inadequate policies for sustainable use of natural resources. Information relevant to addressing the impact of declining biodiversity is housed within the nation's natural history and related biosystematic collections, but is inaccessible to most researchers and policy makers. The National Resource for Digitization of Biological Collections (Integrated Digitized Biocollections; iDigBio) was established to develop an integrated national infrastructure for digitization of existing biodiversity collections in the U.S. The iDigBio project team and infrastructure provides leadership, facilitates communication, and coordinates digitization and educational activities at TCNs (thematic collections networks) and many other biocollections throughout the U.S. Through iDigBio, data for millions of biological specimens are being made publically available in electronic format via customized cloud computing. Diverse data, such as taxonomy, geographic location, 2- and 3-dimensional images, vocalizations, and molecular resources, are tied to the specimens themselves. These data promote integrative biodiversity research on living and fossil species and provide an immense baseline for assessing the impacts of climate change, invasive species, and other environmental issues. The iDigBio project is thus changing the culture of the biocollections community to make digitization become a standard practice through new technologies, techniques, training, and standards of operation.The iDigBio project serves several target audiences and stakeholders, including the biological research community, young biologists entering the profession, non-federal agencies, and the general public. These audiences are being engaged through diverse activities, including workshops, small focus groups, training sessions, symposia at professional meetings, on-line webinars, and related e-learning opportunities developed via the iDigBio web-site. University students are learning about, and are engaged in, this national digitization effort via courses, seminars, mentoring, online resources, and individual research. Graduate student assistantships and young faculty sabbaticals supported by iDigBio are broadening representation and diversifying the professional workforce. The iDigBio web-site, newsletter, and exhibits communicate advances, discoveries and opportunities to the public. The goals, activities, outputs, and outcomes of iDigBio are being evaluated by the Center for Informal Science Education at UF. Although primarily focused on the target audiences described above, the outputs and outcomes of iDigBio will also be available to federal agencies and international stakeholders. The long-term vision for iDigBio is a highly coordinated biocollections digitization community to serve the needs of diverse stakeholders, from the professional systematist to the general public, and communicate the importance of this national resource to advance research and education in the 21st century.