[Nhcoll-l] Reminder: Mammal digitization webinar today!

[Nelson,Gil]

Please plan to attend today’s iDigBio webinar entitled Current State of Digitization in Mammalogy and Future Directions, featuring an all-star cast of presenters and leaders in mammal specimen digitization. This is the next installment in iDigBio’s Sustaining Collections Digitization Beyond NSF Funding webinar series, focusing on the current state of digitization in mammalogy and where the field is headed next. From early catalog digitization efforts to today’s large-scale, data-rich initiatives, mammal collections have played a key role in shaping how biodiversity data are mobilized and used. This session will explore how that legacy continues to evolve, along with new opportunities on the horizon.

Register and check out upcoming events here: https://ufl.zoom.us/ze/hub/iDigBio

For past recordings, check out our YouTube!: https://www.youtube.com/@iDigBio/

April 30, 2026: Current State of Digitization in Mammalogy and Future Directions (2:00-4:00pm ET)

Speakers:
Bryan McLean
Cody Thompson
Emily Braker
Nate Upham
Noe de la Sancha
Sharlene Santana

Abstract: Beginning in the 1970s, mammal collections began the process of digitizing their paper catalogs using mainframe computers. By the 1990s, mammal collections shifted their specimen cataloging to electronic databases, which soon led to the phasing out of paper catalogs. Georeferencing and data aggregation efforts, such as the Mammal Networked Information System (MaNIS), soon followed, placing mammalogy and its natural history collections ahead of the digitization curve by the early 2000s. Recognizing the need for similar digitization efforts across all natural history collections, the National Science Foundation established the Advancing Digitization of Biodiversity Collections (ADBC) program and created iDigBio as the central coordinating organization, funding projects to digitize and mobilize data in many botanical and invertebrate collections. Because of the extent of their taxonomic diversity, these collections were prioritized over mammal and other vertebrate collections. As these biodiverse collections began to mobilize their specimen data, attention returned to vertebrate collections as ideas of the “extended specimen” began take hold, leading to ambitious digitization projects, such as oVert, that reinvigorated some scientific fields (e.g., anatomy) and expanded collection use in others (e.g., biomechanics). Additional mammal-focused digitization efforts have focused on expanding the availability of x-ray computed tomography (CT) datasets (i.e., FuncQEE and BatPEN!) and lifting trait data (i.e., Ranges). These digitization efforts, along with long-term investments in maintaining rigorous taxonomic and database resources, have positioned mammalogy to be a leader in digital collections. However, as technology continues to develop, more opportunities to expand digitization efforts in mammalogy will arise.

We hope to see you there!

Best,

Gil

Gil Nelson PhD, Director

Integrated Digitized Biocollections (iDigBio)

Immediate Past President, Natural Science Collections Alliance (NSCA)

Florida Museum of Natural History

University of Florida

gnelson at floridamuseum.ufl.edu<mailto:gnelson at floridamuseum.ufl.edu>

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