[NHCOLL-L:4767] Developing a digital U.S. biological collections national resource: Resending with additional information

[Thiers, Barbara]

This is a resending of a message first circulated several weeks ago.  Since that time, in response to questions from the community, we have added some additional information about funding to the first paragraph.  The most important part in ALL CAPS.

Dear Colleague:
 
In response to the Report from the Interagency Working Group on Scientific Collections,  federal agencies are becoming more aware that our nation's biological collections hold critical information that will inform research on issues such as climate change, biodiversity loss, invasive species and other national priority environmental issues. WE SEE LANGUAGE IN FEDERAL BUDGET REQUESTS FOR INCREASED SUPPORT TO COLLECTIONS IN ORDER TO MEET THE CHALLENGE AND INCREASE THE VALUE OF THESE COLLECTIONS.   A MULTI-YEAR, MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR EFFORT COULD BECOME AVAILABLE TO DIGITIZE THE NATION'S BIOLOGICAL  COLLECTIONS.  Toward that end, we are preparing a strategic plan for a 10-year national effort to digitize and mobilize images and data associated with biological research collections is being developed. You can view the plan at http://digbiocol.wordpress.com/]
 
This plan requires broad support and input from the collections community and a diversity of stakeholders. The responses to the plan, collected through email and blog commentary will be used in future meetings to complete a strategic plan.
 
Community feedback on the initiative outlined here is critical. Feedback can be made  on the blog post (http://digbiocol.wordpress.com/) or via email (to wg-digitization at nescent.org) as described in the attached document.
 
Specific feedback is needed in areas such as:
 
·         support for the proposed model, suggestions for revision
·         ideas regarding the three-tiered approach suggested here
·         priorities for collection digitization
·         ways to maximize collaboration across institutions and federal agencies, and at the international level.
 
This feedback will be aggregated and provided to participants in future planning sessions that will develop a final strategic plan.  Thanks in advance for taking the time to contribute to this very important initiative.


Dr. Barbara M. Thiers
Director, William and Lynda Steere  Herbarium
Editor, Index Herbariorum
New York Botanical Garden
2900 Southern Blvd.
Bronx, NY 10458-5126
tel: 718-817-8622
fax: 718-817-8809
email:  bthiers at nybg.org
Index Herbariorum twitter updates: http://twitter.com/ihupdates
 Index Herbariorum Registration Form for download:
http://sciweb.nybg.org/science2/IndexHerbariorum.asp