CollectionsWeb, iDigBio, the Small Collections Network (SCNet), and Central Michigan University (CMU) are pleased to co-sponsor a workshop focused on recruiting, supporting, and retaining small natural history collections within biodiversity digitization. This is an invited workshop, to be held at CMU, 8-9 April 2014. The workshop is currently fully subscribed. Remote participation is available via Adobe Connect at http://idigbio.adobeconnect.com/scnet. Interaction with workshop participants is available via a chat facility within Adobe Connect. Sessions will be recorded and archived on the workshop wiki at https://www.idigbio.org/wiki/index.php/Small_Collections.
The workshop brings together about 45 collections professionals representing a broad range of preparation types, institutions, and administrative levels, all of whom have interest, expertise, or insight into promoting small collections and ensuring their inclusion within the digitization effort. This is a product-oriented workshop through which SCNet hopes to create and disseminate a set of publishable best practices, chart a course for the future of the Network, and lay the initial groundwork for several international symposia and conferences focused on curation and digitization in small collections. To this end, the workshop is being preceded by a community survey designed to isolate and enumerate successes, challenges, and issues specifically related to initiating and sustaining digitization. The results of this survey will guide workshop content and activities. The initial results of the workshop will be presented in SCNet’s first international symposium to be held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SNPHC) in June, 2014, followed by a second symposium to be held at SPNHC 2015 in Gainesville, Florida.
The agenda for the workshop is still being revised. The current version is available on the wiki referenced above and will be updated as the workshop draws nearer.
For more information, contact Gil Nelson ([email protected]) or Anna Monfils ([email protected]).