Missouri Botanical Garden Open Conference Systems, TDWG 2013 ANNUAL CONFERENCE

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Engaging Citizens in Specimen Digitization at the New York Botanical Garden Herbarium Specimens
Barbara Mary Thiers

Building: Grand Hotel Mediterraneo
Room: Sala dei Continenti
Date: 2013-10-29 11:40 AM – 11:50 AM
Last modified: 2013-10-05

Abstract


The New York Botanical Garden began involving citizens in our specimen digitization efforts in 2010.  At first we only used volunteers to image specimens in our digitization lab, but in 2013 we expanded our citizen engagement program to include label data transcription as well. To date, volunteers have imaged about 50,000 specimens and have transcribed about 10,000 labels.  We now view the engagement of citizens as a critical component of our digitization program because the scale of our current digitization program requires a larger workforce than we can employ and still keep the per specimen digitization cost at a fundable level, and we are committed to using the herbarium collection as a vehicle for educating the public about the value of scientific collections.

 

Our digitization workflow begins with specimen barcoding and the creation of a skeletal record.  Next the specimens are imaged, and after quality control and processing, images are added to the associated record.  Record and image datasets for transcription are extracted at some later point based taxonomic group and/or on geography, or on the intended the type of citizen group to transcribe the data.

 

So far, we are working with four different groups of citizens:  local residents, some of whom are New York Botanical Garden members and have a history of volunteer service to the institution; formerly incarcerated individuals who transcribe specimen labels as part of a data entry training course in partnership with the Osborne Association, a not-for-profit based in our city; members of the amateur mycological community who are interested in completing specimen records of fungi for use in their own documentation projects; and citizen scientists who were already engaged in transcription projects when they encountered our data.  Training and support are tailored to the needs of these very diverse communities.

 

Minimizing error is essential to the efficient use of a volunteer workforce for digitization; results of our initial attempts pre-2010 indicated that the time needed to correct mistakes made by untrained workers often exceeded the time required by an average paid worker to capture the same quantity of data.  However, advances in protocol and technology have greatly diminished the error rate for both image capture and transcription. Our image capture procedure has been standardized to such an extent that there is very little room for error, and volunteers work alongside paid staff so there is always someone available to answer questions.  We reduce the error in label transcription through training and by limiting the data elements to be entered. Consequently, the error rate is now within the limits expected for junior digitization staff.  Still, we are aiming to reduce the time needed for data editing further.  One approach will be to improve initial data entry through better training and support.  Also, the data editing process can be streamlined.  For example, having the ability to view the specimen label image while reviewing data entered would reduce editing time.