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Digitisation Prioritisation

We are facing a huge challenge as we have started this ambitious goal to digitise all natural collection specimens. On a global scale this is truly a massive undertaking and a set of prioritisation criteria are needed. This applies also within every individual institution, which is starting this process in its own collections.

One of the first questions is where to start. To help institutions to tackle this question, very comprehensive work has been done in two DiSSCo related projects (links below). As a result of this work the prioritisation criteria were grouped to four main categories.

The list below summarises a few key points you might find useful when planning what to digitise.

  • Relevance
    • Scientific
      • Research interests
      • Relevance to the fundamental research, primary biodiversity data etc.
      • Collaboration with national/international research groups
    • Collection
      • Types, historic importance, needs curation
      • Enhance collection management efficiency
      • Increase attraction/usage to the collections
      • Exploit existing expertise, processes
      • Implementation of policies
      • Size
    • Social
      • Social contribution to public awareness, education or outreach
      • Contribution to conservation
      • Promote the importance of the collections to the stakeholders and public
      • Citizen science
    • Economic
      • Economic activities e.g. invasive species, indicator species
      • Generate revenues, jobs
  • Data quality
    • Information level
      • How much information there is already in a digital specimen, enrichment → MIDS
      • How reliable is that information
        • Accuracy and precision
  • Cost
    • Important to include all costs associated with the project, also the pre- and post- digitisation costs.
      • Capital costs, fixed operating costs, variable operating costs.
  • Feasibility
    • Funding (existing, potential)
    • Collections readiness (curation stage etc.)
    • Skilled staff availability
      • IT skills etc.
    • Technical readiness
      • Existing equipment/infrastructure e.g. cameras, computing power, storage space, softwares, back-up possibilities

It is good to bear in mind that the prioritisation is not an exact science and there is no one model fit all- solution. Likewise it is also good to keep the prioritisation process flexible because situations within an institution can change and it may become necessary to reassess the digitisation criteria accordingly.

Bakker, Hannco P.A.J.; Willemse, Luc; van Egmond, Emily; Casino, Ana; Gödderz, Karsten; Vermeersch, Xavier 2018. Inventory of criteria for prioritization of digitization of collections focussed on scientific and societal needs. A deliverable (D2.1) of the ICEDIG project. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2579156

Authors

Koivunen, Anne
Luomus
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Version: 0.1
Changes since last version: Last Updated: 3 February 2023

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