[Nhcoll-l] Seeking Protocols for Imaging Entomological Specimens

Thu Mar 21 23:51:17 EDT 2013

Hi all,

Further to Roger's email below, the information available at Harvard's E-type initiative is also helpful: http://insects.oeb.harvard.edu/etypes/index.htm. They've got info about equipment and montaging processes, and workflow and data management issues.

Picking up on Roger's mention of standardised views I spent some serious time considering the list of recommended views supplied by MCZ at the link below, but didn't take their advice in full: http://insects.oeb.harvard.edu/etypes/specificimages.htm

A key focus of the SA Museum project was the notion of 'rapid' digitisation, and getting the data sorted as quickly as possible. We have approximately 8500 holotypes (and lecto-, syn- etc) and we decided to take a standard set of dorsal, lateral and labels views for each specimen. This was because

-          it would be more efficient (I could take the 6-8 views suggested by that list only to discover that for 7000 of those specimens, none of those images is ever used - whereas this was we get them all discoverable quickly, and if a taxonomist requires a different view for a specimen that is of interest, they can request it and add it to our image archive at that point as well)

-          we're working with a team of volunteer photographers, most of which have no entomological experience, so photographing 'stridulatory apparatus' and other such complexities was a bit much to ask

BUT these decisions were just suitable to the requirements of our project - others certainly have different views and are imaging in different circumstances. The Pests and Diseases Image Library (http://www.padil.gov.au/) takes a full set of taxonomic views for all specimens, that and their layout helps the viewer make comparisons between species.

How you choose to go with this depends on the demands of the project and the resources at hand.

Cheers,
Alexis

From: nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu [mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Burkhalter, Roger J.
Sent: Friday, 22 March 2013 1:50 AM
To: Nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] Seeking Protocols for Imaging Entomological Specimens

The Atlas of Living Australia Digitisation guidance is well thought out and provides really excellent documents. It addresses many of the specific needs of collections. It focuses quite a bit on workflow and automating systems whereas we have focused much of our attention on standardized views. Starting with the excellent "Taxonomic-Grade Images" by Arino and Galicia, we sought to image type and figured specimens in our collection (Invertebrate Paleontology) in views standardized for study of that particular taxonomic group. The reasoning being that if we were taking the time to image specimens, to do it in a way most useful to researchers interested in those groups. Low resolution copies of those images are then attached to the on-line database and full resolution images can be made available as digital loans if requested. Many times, a publication will show only one or two views of a specimen whereas many additional views of the same specimen are currently available on-line. We consider this documenting the specimen and not doing the researchers work although we have had that argument internally many times.

We quickly found that standardized views of many groups was a concept passed down from advisor to student, with very little information actually published. Some groups, especially echinoderms, views can vary significantly from the Order or even Family assignment.  I would suspect the same is true in entomological collections.

Since we started this task about 12 years ago, improvements in equipment has changed many things we now do, but one thing has not changed, and has not changed since the days of using film, the quality of the lens is at least as important as the pixel count.  We use what the Atlas of Living Australia Digitisation guidance pdf Digital Imaging Requirements Review calls an Adapted system for photography using a prosumer Canon dSLR (EOS 5d Mark III) with Leitz Aristophot lenses acquired from various sources. These lenses are often setting unused at various institutions because they are "outdated" technology, but we have found no currently available lenses as sharp or with sufficient contrast.

Roger

[cid:image001.png at 01CE2707.B9520E60]<http://www.snomnh.ou.edu/exhibits/>

Roger Burkhalter

Collection's Manager, Invertebrate Paleontology

t. 405.325.1097

f. 405.325.7699

Sam Noble Museum

University of Oklahoma

2401 Chautauqua Ave. Norman, OK 73072-7029

[cid:image002.png at 01CE2707.B9520E60]<http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sam-Noble-Oklahoma-Museum-of-Natural-History/31844734643>[cid:image003.png at 01CE2707.B9520E60]<http://twitter.com/#!/SamNobleMuseum>[cid:image004.png at 01CE2707.B9520E60]<http://www.youtube.com/user/samnoblemuseum?feature=results_main>[cid:image005.png at 01CE2707.B9520E60]<http://www.snomnh.ou.edu/>[cid:image006.png at 01CE2707.B9520E60]<http://commonfossilsofoklahoma.snomnh.ou.edu/>

__________________________________________________________
Hi Jenny,

The South Australian Museum, Australian Museum and others have been working on entomological imaging for the Atlas of Living Australia.

Some of what we have learned, including digitisation and workflow guidance and some helpful tips are available here: http://www.ala.org.au/about-the-atlas/digitisation-guidance/

I'd draw your attention to the bottom of that page, where you can find downloadable pdf 'final reports' for our projects at SAMA and the AM, which include information about equipment purchasing decisions, costs and workflow particular to our projects.

Also, the basic manuals from the SA Museum volunteer digitisation project are available on our website here:
http://www.samuseum.sa.gov.au/index.php?option=com_content&Itemid=171&catid=35&id=403&view=article
(These have had a couple of updates just recently, please get in touch with me off list if you'd like me to send through updated versions, or our Photoshop manual).

Also, happy to answer any particular questions that you have, feel free to email me at alexis.tindall at samuseum.sa.gov.au<mailto:alexis.tindall at samuseum.sa.gov.au>. We don't have all the answers, still struggling with a few things ourselves, but I might be able to help a bit, or point you in the direction of someone who can.

Cheers,
Alexis
____________________________________________________________

Hello All,

Does anyone happen to have an imaging guide or detailed protocols for imaging entomological specimens? If anyone could share their information with us, I would greatly appreciate it.

Regards,

Jenny Leasor

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/nhcoll-l/attachments/20130322/fc27788d/attachment-0001.html 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.png
Type: image/png
Size: 9673 bytes
Desc: image001.png
Url : http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/nhcoll-l/attachments/20130322/fc27788d/attachment-0006.png 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image002.png
Type: image/png
Size: 49264 bytes
Desc: image002.png
Url : http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/nhcoll-l/attachments/20130322/fc27788d/attachment-0007.png 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image003.png
Type: image/png
Size: 49549 bytes
Desc: image003.png
Url : http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/nhcoll-l/attachments/20130322/fc27788d/attachment-0008.png 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image004.png
Type: image/png
Size: 54479 bytes
Desc: image004.png
Url : http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/nhcoll-l/attachments/20130322/fc27788d/attachment-0009.png 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image005.png
Type: image/png
Size: 50634 bytes
Desc: image005.png
Url : http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/nhcoll-l/attachments/20130322/fc27788d/attachment-0010.png 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image006.png
Type: image/png
Size: 3485 bytes
Desc: image006.png
Url : http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/nhcoll-l/attachments/20130322/fc27788d/attachment-0011.png 