[Nhcoll-l] global unique identifiers and natural history collections

[Robert Guralnick]

  Dear List --- I have been curious about something, and hope you
won't mind taking a moment to at least cogitate (or perhaps even
respond) with some thoughts.  As digitization efforts continue to ramp
up in collections, there is clearly an impetus to have global unique
identifiers on physical specimens and downstream derivates such as
images, metadata records, etc.   There are a fair number of arguments
about how to do this, and lots of recommendations etc. One could argue
there are TOO MANY recommendations and arguments!

 The key question is:  If there was a service that provided you, free
of charge, with digital object identifiers (DOIs - those global unique
identifiers associated with publications) that could be associated
with your specimens, would you use it?

More details on why I am asking (and what we view as a needed "reset"
on the conversation) can be found in a recent blog post by the
BiSciCol (pronounced "bicycle" and standing for Biological Science
Collections Tracker) group:  http://biscicol.blogspot.com/

Appreciate thoughts!  Will summarize here and on the blog!
Best, Rob

Dr. Rob Guralnick
Curator and Assoc. Prof.
CU Museum of Nat. Hist. and Dept. of Ecol. and Evol. Biol.
University of Colorado, Boulder etc etc etc
https://sites.google.com/site/robgur/