<div dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-ee62e5b6-6a7c-5769-40bb-4f7600a6c4c2"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:transparent"><span id="docs-internal-guid-ee62e5b6-6a7c-d10e-f1b8-f0009da5aeb9"></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:transparent">Dear Natural History Collection Community,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-weight:400;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:transparent"><br></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:transparent">We are writing today to invite you to get involved in citizen science based transcription of museum specimen labels. <a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.notesfromnature.org_&d=CwMFaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=gF3d0c1jaN2ki3GtWD9r9yQWLpd_uvoZo3eOggiXIwA&s=KeptVhDBFz-Fldh6WRrq_3j7jZ2toWInW_HOajgzYOY&e=">Notes from Nature</a> is a citizen science based biodiversity transcription project hosted on the premier citizen science platform, the <a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.zooniverse.org_about&d=CwMFaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=gF3d0c1jaN2ki3GtWD9r9yQWLpd_uvoZo3eOggiXIwA&s=Q0w8h-XnbALlYSYsNtCY3yiwMkVfx87zu4KVGqkVYpM&e=">Zooniverse</a>. Our focus is on transcription of museum specimen labels by citizen scientists who gain knowledge of biodiversity in the process. This innovative workflow has the potential to increase digitization rates, promote STEM literacy and build public support for natural history collections.</span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:transparent">In the first three years since Notes from Nature launched, over 10,000 registered Zooniverse volunteers, as well as a larger number of unregistered ones, have completed over 1.5 million transcriptions for the natural history collection community. In turn, these volunteers have learned about biodiversity, natural history collections and associated research. The project first launched in 2013 and funding from the Natural Science Foundation to the University of Florida and Florida State University enabled Notes from Nature to conduct major upgrades and relaunch a new site this past June. </span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:transparent">One of the primary advantages of our new platform is that it makes it much easier to bring new partners on board and offers flexibility with which these partners can produce “expeditions.” Expeditions are relatively small bundles of specimens (a few thousand) circumscribed to produce a compelling theme of interest to volunteers. New integration with <a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__biospex.org_&d=CwMFaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=gF3d0c1jaN2ki3GtWD9r9yQWLpd_uvoZo3eOggiXIwA&s=C0lznEpWMyMliVHKY_iR6fL_9nyZYBv2r3c4QhuOpJI&e=">Biospex</a></span><span style="font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:transparent"> provides tools for provisioning, advertising, and leading transcription expeditions. Biospex enables a smooth flow of information (including data provenance) between specimen data management systems and Notes from Nature. Examples of expeditions launched so far include New World Swallowtail Butterflies, Bee Flies, Laurels of Florida - Fight Laurel Wilt, and Ant Plants of Virginia.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:transparent"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:transparent">We encourage you to check out all of the new features at Notes from Nature, including the Talk platform, a user-specific field notebook that captures volunteer effort and shows badges, and a new means to examine expedition and overall site statistics. In the coming months, we anticipate rolling out new tools for transcription reconciliations and data cleaning that will ensure that the best quality entries return to your specimen data management systems.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:transparent"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:transparent">If you are interested in learning more, we encourage you to fill out the short survey at <a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__goo.gl_forms_D8vS4lXgAP5467Sf2&d=CwMFaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=gF3d0c1jaN2ki3GtWD9r9yQWLpd_uvoZo3eOggiXIwA&s=EApY392IVrn_SA_zE4LAwy5DSOY_tA6-9Bv6UhfUXEE&e=">https://goo.gl/forms/D8vS4lXgAP5467Sf2</a>. We are especially eager to add breadth to the available taxa and collection types at Notes from Nature, so don’t worry if you don’t see a current expedition that is similar to what you would like to do. We only ask that you be committed to engagement with the community of contributing citizen scientists and to broad online sharing of the data that they create for you. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:transparent"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:transparent">Thank you for considering Notes from Nature as part of your collection’s digitization workflow.  Think of it as a global stage for your natural history collection.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:transparent"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:transparent">Best,</span></p><span style="font-family:Arial;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;background-color:transparent">The Notes From Nature Team</span></span><br></div>