<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=windows-1252"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;"><p class="normal" align="center" style="text-align: left;">We are pleased to announce the technical session T200 “<i>Advancing the Digitization of Paleontology and Geoscience Collections: Projects, Programs, and Practices</i>” to be held at the 2014 GSA Annual Meeting in Vancouver, Canada this October. The session is sponsored by iDigBio, in collaboration with the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections, the Paleontological Society, GSA Geoinformatics, University of Colorado Museum of Natural History, and Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History.</p><p class="normal">Abstracts should be submitted via the meeting website and are due July 29<sup>th</sup>, 2014:<o:p></o:p></p><p class="normal"><a href="http://www.geosociety.org/meetings/2014/">http://www.geosociety.org/meetings/2014/sessions/topical.asp?SponsorID=iDigBio&submit=Go</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class="normal"><b>Session Description:</b></p><p class="normal"><span style="background-color: white;">iDigBio, NSF’s national resource for digitization, has taken an active role in supporting paleontological digitization efforts.</span> This session will highlight features, successes, and lessons from existing NSF-funded paleontology related Thematic Collections Networks<span style="color: red;"> </span>within the Advancing Digitization of Biodiversity Collections program<span style="background-color: white;">. The symposium will also </span>draw on and present what has been learned from several iDigBio-supported paleontology workshops and working groups (e.g., paleo-digitization workshop; paleo-imaging workshop; paleo-specific Specify database workshop; Paleontology Digitization Workflows Working Group; Paleontology Digitization Working Group.) The agenda will also include a report from EarthCube, an introduction to the National Science Foundation’s Advancing Digitization of Biodiversity Collections program, a report from SPNHC highlighting the collaborative role is plays in supporting paleontology collections and digitization, and in introduction to iDigBio, NSF’s national digitization resource.</p><p class="normal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="normal">Other major foci for the session include issues related to developing appropriate database schemas for effectively storing and sharing paleontology collections data, effective strategies for launching and sustaining paleontology digitization programs, key elements that comprise an effective digitization program, the future of funding for paleontology collections digitization, the use of georeferencing technologies for enriching paleontology collections data, the use of digitized objects in paleontology education and outreach for fossil clubs and secondary and undergraduate education, and enhancement of the relationship between paleontological collections, core repositories, and other geological and mineralogical collections. </p><div><b>Please direct questions to:</b></div><div><p class="normal">Talia Karim, University of Colorado- <a href="mailto:talia.karim@colorado.edu">talia.karim@colorado.edu</a></p><p class="normal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="normal">Gil Nelson, Florida State University and iDigBio- <a href="mailto:gnelson@bio.fsu.edu">gnelson@bio.fsu.edu</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class="normal">Tim White, Yale Peabody Museum- <a href="mailto:russel.white@yale.edu">russel.white@yale.edu</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class="normal"><br></p></div><p class="normal"><o:p></o:p></p><br><br><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px;"><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; widows: 2; border-spacing: 0px;"><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline">------</div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;">Talia Karim, PhD<br>Collection Manager<br>Invertebrate Paleontology<br>CU Museum of Natural History<br>University of Colorado<br>265 UCB<br>Boulder, CO 80309-0265<br><a href="http://fossilinsects.colorado.edu">http://fossilinsects.colorado.edu</a></div></span></div></span></div></body></html>