[Nhcoll-l] The Extended Specimen Report and Brochure

[Thiers, Barbara]

The final version of a report entitled, "Extending U.S. Biodiversity Collections to Promote Research and Education"  is now available  (https://bcon.aibs.org/2019/04/04/bcon-report-extending-u-s-biodiversity-collections-to-promote-research-and-education/).   Both the full report (about 23 pages) and a shorter illustrated version (summary brochure) can be downloaded.

Readers of NH-Coll will know that during the past year we have solicited your thoughts about the future deployment of data held in U.S. biodiversity collections for research, policy and education. A workshop held last fall synthesized the responses from the surveys, as well as from discussion sessions held at several conferences and recent literature.

Arising from these deliberations is a consensus to focus future biodiversity documentation on building a network of extended specimens that represent the depth and breadth of biodiversity held in U.S. collections institutions. The extended specimen will consist of the physical voucher and preparations (e.g. tissue samples); digitized representations such as occurrence records and images; derivative products such as gene sequences or metagenomes; and taxon- or locality-specific data such as observations, phylogenies or species distributions.

New collections, needed now more than ever to inform solutions to societal problems, should be “born-extended”, i.e., accessioned with a full suite of supplemental data.  Collectively, these extended specimens will form a network of linked data to enable exploration across taxonomic, temporal and spatial scales. Such exploration will help us understand the rules that govern how organisms grow, diversify and interact with one another, and how environmental change and human activities may affect those rules.

As a resource for formal and informal education (including citizen science), the extended specimen network will afford scalable learning opportunities for K-Life in data literacy as well as biological science and the humanities. To create this resource will require continued specimen digitization, new collections, standardization of existing digital data to facilitate discovery, and implementation of a robust specimen identifier tracking system. It will also require new approaches to data sharing and collaboration, partnerships with national and international data providers, computer and data scientists and educators.

Thanks to everyone who contributed their insights to the surveys, discussions, and comments on the draft report!

We launched the report at the National Press Club last Thursday (4 April).  If you'd like to hear more about the Extended Specimen network, listen to the BCoN team talking about it in the Bioscience podcast:

http://bioscienceaibs.libsyn.com/biodiversity-and-the-extended-specimen-network
[http://assets.libsyn.com/show/67374?height=250&width=250&overlay=true]<http://bioscienceaibs.libsyn.com/biodiversity-and-the-extended-specimen-network>

BioScience Talks: Biodiversity and the Extended Specimen Network<http://bioscienceaibs.libsyn.com/biodiversity-and-the-extended-specimen-network>
Natural history specimens housed in museums, herbaria, and other research collections are revolutionizing science—largely as a result of growing efforts to digitize samples and share data among many users. To meet the robust promise of digital collections, the Biodiversity Collections Network (BCoN) has developed a national agenda that leverages new techniques and capabilities to create what they call the Extended Specimen Network. Members of BCoN join us on this episode of BioScience Talks to describe the newly conceived network and to talk about its potential to change the way science is performed—both now and in the future. Pictured above are our guests at a National Press Club briefing where they formally released their report (from left to right: David Jennings, Andrew Bentley, Linda Ford, Anna Monfils, Jennifer Zaspel, John Bates, Barbara Thiers, and Robert Gropp). Photograph: Samuel Hurd. Download the report. Subscribe on iTunes. Subscribe on Stitcher. Catch up with us on Twitter.   
bioscienceaibs.libsyn.com



Dr. Barbara M. Thiers
Vice President
Patricia K. Holmgren Director
William and Lynda Steere Herbarium
The New York Botanical Garden
President-Elect, SPNHC
Editor, Index Herbariorum
2900 Southern Blvd.
Bronx, NY 10458
Download:
The World’s Herbaria 2017<https://webmail.nybg.org/owa/redir.aspx?C=DZKIfwlM-bRuN7VbYm3y6VYav1JKmR4c1-8AgqzXvwyyH2wh5FbVCA..&URL=http%3a%2f%2fsweetgum.nybg.org%2fscience%2fdocs%2fThe_Worlds_Herbaria_2017_5_Jan_2018.pdf>  (second Index Herbariorum annual report)
Index Herbariorum Registration Form<https://webmail.nybg.org/owa/redir.aspx?C=vVPvApDN5rnGmmbKVYFc8fgw_ayLMiDK3Yb6MYRLAU-yH2wh5FbVCA..&URL=http%3a%2f%2fsciweb.nybg.org%2fscience2%2fIH_Questionnaire_2009.doc>
Index Herbariorum Registration Form Example<https://webmail.nybg.org/owa/redir.aspx?C=BEo_gpY-7iKK78FaX5YK2uIRJUi67YtCa4rtEJ8MJgOyH2wh5FbVCA..&URL=http%3a%2f%2fsciweb.nybg.org%2fscience2%2fIH_Questionnaire_2009_example.doc>
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