SPNHC 2014 Small Collections Symposium
Call for Presentation Abstracts
We are pleased to announce that iDigBio and the Small Collections Network (SCNet) are organizing a symposium at SPNHC 2014 entitled Recruiting, Retaining, and Supporting Small Collections in Digitization Initiatives: A Call From the Small Collections Network (SCNet). The symposium is scheduled for Wednesday, 25 June and will focus on strategies for recruiting, retaining, and sustaining small collections within local, regional, national, and international digitization initiatives. The program will include a report of findings from a community survey of small collections as well as outcomes from the small collections workshop to be held at Central Michigan University USA, 7-10 April. Those who would like to contribute to this symposium are invited to submit a presentation abstract addressing one or more of the following themes, or an alternate theme. Talks are anticipated to be 20 minutes long, inclusive of 5 minutes for questions. Our goal is to create an international dialog centered on issues related to curating, digitizing, and managing small collections.
Currently envisioned themes include:
1. the importance of small collections data to national networks of biodiversity data repositories,
2. data-driven research underscoring the significance and contributions of small collections to biodiversity research and/or to the training of undergraduate and graduate students,
3. the role of intra- and interdisciplinary collaboration in sustaining and growing small collections,
4. recommended or best practices for initiating and sustaining digitization in small collections,
5. current initiatives targeted at the support of small collections,
6. the role of larger collections in sustaining smaller collections,
7. issues, challenges, and methods for resurrecting orphaned collections, and
8. the role SCNet might play in sustaining small collections.
Proposals and abstracts may be submitted at: http://tinyurl.com/RecruitingRetainingSymposium.
For further information, contact the organizers of this symposium: Gil Nelson ([email protected]) or Anna Monfils ([email protected]).