scholarly journals Identification of provisional Centres of Excellence for digitisation of European natural science collections

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Dixey ◽  
Matt Woodburn ◽  
Helen Hardy ◽  
Laurence Livermore ◽  
Vincent Smith
Keyword(s):  
Distributed System ◽  
Natural Science ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Scientific Collections ◽  
Centres Of Excellence

Digitisation of natural science collections is fundamental to the vision for the Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo), and given the low proportion of collections digitally accessible, it is proposed that ‘Centres of Excellence’ be developed to accelerate the creation of digital copies of original specimens. Within the ICEDIG project, a team of scientists from across the consortium explored the concept of Centres of Excellence and have constructed a toolset to help identify these centres to support the development of DiSSCo. This report documents this process and describes the toolset.

scholarly journals Technical capacities of digitisation centres within ICEDIG participating institutions

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naomi Cocks ◽  
Laurence Livermore ◽  
Vincent Smith ◽  
Matt Woodburn
Keyword(s):  
Distributed System ◽  
Natural Science ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Practical Reasons ◽  
Institutional Collaboration ◽  
Level Of Aggregation ◽  
Scientific Collections ◽  
Future Work

DiSSCo, the Distributed System of Scientific Collections, is seeking to centralise certain infrastructure and activities relating to the digitisation of natural science collections. Deciding what activities to distribute, what to centralise, and what geographic level of aggregation (e.g. regional, national or pan European) is most appropriate for each task, was one of the challenges set out within the EC-funded ICEDIG project. In this paper we present the results of a survey of several European collections to establish current digitisation capacity, strengths and skills associated with existing digitisation infrastructure. Our results indicate that most of the institutions surveyed are engaged in large-scale digitisation of collections and that this is usually being undertaken by dedicated teams of digitisers within each institution. Some cross institutional collaboration is happening, but this is still the exception for a variety of funder and practical reasons. These results inform future work that establishes a set of principles to determine how digitisation infrastructure might be most efficiently organised across European organisations in order to maximise progress on the digitisation of the estimated 1.5 billion specimens held within European natural science collections.

scholarly journals White paper on the alignment and interoperability between the Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo) and EU infrastructures - The case of the European Environment Agency (EEA)

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niels Raes ◽  
Ana Casino ◽  
Hilary Goodson ◽  
Sharif Islam ◽  
Dimitrios Koureas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Distributed System ◽  
Natural Science ◽  
White Paper ◽  
European Environment Agency ◽  
The Public ◽  
Policy Domain ◽  
European Environmental Policy ◽  
The Common ◽  
Environment Agency ◽  
Scientific Collections

The Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo) Research Infrastructure (RI) is presently in its preparatory phase. DiSSCo is developing a new distributed RI to operate as a one-stop-shop for the envisaged European Natural Science Collection (NSC) and all its derived information. Through mass digitisation, DiSSCo will transform the fragmented landscape of NSCs, including an estimated 1.5 billion specimens, into an integrated knowledge base that will provide interconnected evidence of the natural world. Data derived from European NSCs underpin countless discoveries and innovations, including tens of thousands of scholarly publications and official reports annually (supporting legislative and regulatory processes on sustainability, environmental change, land use, societal infrastructure, health, food, security, etc.); base-line biodiversity data; inventions and products essential to bio-economy; databases, maps and descriptions of scientific observations; educational material for students; and instructive and informative resources for the public. To expand the user community, DiSSCo will strengthen capacity building across Europe for maximum engagement of stakeholders in the biodiversity-related field and beyond, including industry and the private sector, but also policy-driving entities. Hence, it is opportune to reach out to relevant stakeholders in the European environmental policy domain represented by the European Environment Agency (EEA). The EEA aims to support sustainable development by helping to achieve significant and measurable improvement in Europe's environment, through the provision of timely, targeted, relevant and reliable information to policy-making agents and the public. The EEA provides information through the European Environment Information and Observation System (Eionet). The aim of this white paper is to open the discussion between DiSSCo and the EEA and identify the common service interests that are relevant for the European environmental policy domain. The first section describes the significance of (digital) Natural Science Collections (NHCs). Section two describes the DiSSCo programme with all DiSSCo aligned projects. Section three provides background information on the EEA and the biodiversity infrastructures that are developed and maintained by the EEA. The fourth section illustrates a number of use cases where the DiSSCo consortium sees opportunities for interaction between the DiSSCo RI and the Eionet portal of the EEA. Opening the discussion with the EEA in this phase of maturity of DiSSCo will ensure that the infrastructural design of DiSSCo and the development of e-Services accommodate the present and future needs of the EEA and assure data interoperability between the two infrastructures. The aim of this white paper is to present benefits from identifying the common service interests of DiSSCo and the EEA. A brief introduction to natural science collections as well as the two actors is given to facilitate the understanding of the needs and possibilities in the alignment of DiSSCo with the EEA.

scholarly journals A choice of persistent identifier schemes for the Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo)

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Hardisty ◽  
Wouter Addink ◽  
Falko Glöckler ◽  
Anton Güntsch ◽  
Sharif Islam ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Distributed System ◽  
Natural Science ◽  
Open Science ◽  
Scientific Data ◽  
Research Infrastructure ◽  
Qualitative Assessment ◽  
Digital Representations ◽  
Persistent Identifier ◽  
Community Trust ◽  
Scientific Collections

Persistent identifiers (PID) to identify digital representations of physical specimens in natural science collections (i.e., digital specimens) unambiguously and uniquely on the Internet are one of the mechanisms for digitally transforming collections-based science. Digital Specimen PIDs contribute to building and maintaining long-term community trust in the accuracy and authenticity of the scientific data to be managed and presented by the Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo) research infrastructure planned in Europe to commence implementation in 2024. Not only are such PIDs valid over the very long timescales common in the heritage sector but they can also transcend changes in underlying technologies of their implementation. They are part of the mechanism for widening access to natural science collections. DiSSCo technical experts previously selected the Handle System as the choice to meet core PID requirements. Using a two-step approach, this options appraisal captures, characterises and analyses different alternative Handle-based PID schemes and the possible operational modes of use. In a first step a weighting and ranking the options has been applied followed by a structured qualitative assessment of social and technical compliance across several assessment dimensions: levels of scalability, community trust, persistence, governance, appropriateness of the scheme and suitability for future global adoption. The results are discussed in relation to branding, community perceptions and global context to determine a preferred PID scheme for DiSSCo that also has potential for adoption and acceptance globally. DiSSCo will adopt a ‘driven-by DOI’ persistent identifier (PID) scheme customised with natural sciences community characteristics. Establishing a new Registration Agency in collaboration with the International DOI Foundation is a practical way forward to support the FAIR (findable, accessible interoperable, reusable) data architecture of DiSSCo research infrastructure. This approach is compatible with the policies of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) and is aligned to existing practices across the global community of natural science collections.

scholarly journals A Data Standard for Dynamic Collection Descriptions

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matt Woodburn ◽  
Gabriele Droege ◽  
Sharon Grant ◽  
Quentin Groom ◽  
Janeen Jones ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Science ◽  
Data Model ◽  
Use Cases ◽  
Use Case ◽  
Global Biodiversity Information Facility ◽  
Controlled Vocabularies ◽  
Data Standard ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Scientific Collections ◽  
Biodiversity Information

The utopian vision is of a future where a digital representation of each object in our collections is accessible through the internet and sustainably linked to other digital resources. This is a long term goal however, and in the meantime there is an urgent need to share data about our collections at a higher level with a range of stakeholders (Woodburn et al. 2020). To sustainably achieve this, and to aggregate this information across all natural science collections, the data need to be standardised (Johnston and Robinson 2002). To this end, the Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) Collection Descriptions (CD) Interest Group has developed a data standard for describing collections, which is approaching formal review for ratification as a new TDWG standard. It proposes 20 classes (Suppl. material 1) and over 100 properties that can be used to describe, categorise, quantify, link and track digital representations of natural science collections, from high-level approximations to detailed breakdowns depending on the purpose of a particular implementation. The wide range of use cases identified for representing collection description data means that a flexible approach to the standard and the underlying modelling concepts is essential. These are centered around the ‘ObjectGroup’ (Fig. 1), a class that may represent any group (of any size) of physical collection objects, which have one or more common characteristics. This generic definition of the ‘collection’ in ‘collection descriptions’ is an important factor in making the standard flexible enough to support the breadth of use cases. For any use case or implementation, only a subset of classes and properties within the standard are likely to be relevant. In some cases, this subset may have little overlap with those selected for other use cases. This additional need for flexibility means that very few classes and properties, representing the core concepts, are proposed to be mandatory. Metrics, facts and narratives are represented in a normalised structure using an extended MeasurementOrFact class, so that these can be user-defined rather than constrained to a set identified by the standard. Finally, rather than a rigid underlying data model as part of the normative standard, documentation will be developed to provide guidance on how the classes in the standard may be related and quantified according to relational, dimensional and graph-like models. So, in summary, the standard has, by design, been made flexible enough to be used in a number of different ways. The corresponding risk is that it could be used in ways that may not deliver what is needed in terms of outputs, manageability and interoperability with other resources of collection-level or object-level data. To mitigate this, it is key for any new implementer of the standard to establish how it should be used in that particular instance, and define any necessary constraints within the wider scope of the standard and model. This is the concept of the ‘collection description scheme,’ a profile that defines elements such as: which classes and properties should be included, which should be mandatory, and which should be repeatable; which controlled vocabularies and hierarchies should be used to make the data interoperable; how the collections should be broken down into individual ObjectGroups and interlinked, and how the various classes should be related to each other. which classes and properties should be included, which should be mandatory, and which should be repeatable; which controlled vocabularies and hierarchies should be used to make the data interoperable; how the collections should be broken down into individual ObjectGroups and interlinked, and how the various classes should be related to each other. Various factors might influence these decisions, including the types of information that are relevant to the use case, whether quantitative metrics need to be captured and aggregated across collection descriptions, and how many resources can be dedicated to amassing and maintaining the data. This process has particular relevance to the Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo) consortium, the design of which incorporates use cases for storing, interlinking and reporting on the collections of its member institutions. These include helping users of the European Loans and Visits System (ELViS) (Islam 2020) to discover specimens for physical and digital loans by providing descriptions and breakdowns of the collections of holding institutions, and monitoring digitisation progress across European collections through a dynamic Collections Digitisation Dashboard. In addition, DiSSCo will be part of a global collections data ecosystem requiring interoperation with other infrastructures such as the GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility) Registry of Scientific Collections, the CETAF (Consortium of European Taxonomic Facilities) Registry of Collections and Index Herbariorum. In this presentation, we will introduce the draft standard and discuss the process of defining new collection description schemes using the standard and data model, and focus on DiSSCo requirements as examples of real-world collection descriptions use cases.

scholarly journals Rediscovering a forgotten scientific collection in the Rio Grande do Norte State, Brazil: The herpetological collection of the zoologist José Santiago Lima-Verde

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alcéster Diego Coelho-Lima ◽  
Marcelo Almeida De Sousa Jucá ◽  
Ellen Beatriz Fontes da Fonseca ◽  
Leticia Cely Vieira de Medeiros ◽  
Pamella Barbara Coutinho Soares ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Rio Grande ◽  
Biological Data ◽  
Northeastern Brazil ◽  
Western Region ◽  
Snake Species ◽  
Brazilian State ◽  
In Captivity ◽  
Basic Source ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Scientific Collections

Abstract: The zoologist Dr. José Santiago Lima-Verde (1945-2019) made a number of major contributions to the field of animal biology in the northeastern Brazil, in particular through his research with snakes. While employed as a professor at Escola Superior de Agricultura de Mossoró, currently the Universidade Federal Rural do Semi-Árido, Prof. Lima-Verde established a herpetological collection which remained forgotten for a number of decades. In the present study, we describe the revitalization of this collection, which included the updating of the identification of the species and the compilation of the metadata on the collection, which is now named the Coleção Herpetológica Lima-Verde. We catalogued 80 specimens representing 30 species, including 23 species of snakes, five lizards, and two amphisbaenians. One third (30%) of the specimens had information on dates and sites, with the majority of these specimens being collected in the Brazilian State of Rio Grande do Norte during the 1970's. We also catalogued 315 eggs of seven snake species, from 22 clutches laid in captivity. The collection presents unpublished data and will constitute a reference for future herpetological research on the species found in western region of State of Rio Grande do Norte. Our findings reinforce the importance of zoological collections for the understanding of patterns of biodiversity, and we would recommend the creation of more regional scientific collections and the broader recognition of their value as a basic source of biological data.

scholarly journals DiSSCo as a New Regional Model for Scientific Collections in Europe

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wouter Addink ◽  
Dimitrios Koureas ◽  
Ana Rubio
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Natural Science ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Advisory Board ◽  
Political Support ◽  
Research Infrastructure ◽  
Morphological Data ◽  
Natural History Museums ◽  
History Museums ◽  
Scientific Collections

European Natural Science Collections (NSC) are part of the global natural and cultural capital and represent 80% of the world bio-and geo-diversity. Data derived from these collections underpin thousands of scholarly publications and official reports (used to support legislative and regulatory processes relating to health, food, security, sustainability and environmental change) and let to inventions and products that today play an important role in our bio-economy. In the last decades, the research practice in natural sciences changed dramatically. Advances in digital, genomic and information technologies enable natural science collections to provide new insights but also ask for changing the current operational and business models of individual collections held at local natural history museums and universities. A new business model that provides unified access to collection objects and all scientific data derived from them. Although aggregating infrastructures like the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, GenBank and Catalogue of Life now successfully aggregate data on specific data classes, the landscape remains fragmented with limited capacity to bring together this information in a systematic and robust manner and with scattered access to the physical objects. The Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo) represents a pan-European initiative, and the largest ever agreement of natural science museums, to jointly address the fragmentation of European collections. DiSSCo is unifying European natural science collections into a coherent new research infrastructure, able to provide bio- and geo-diversity data at the scale, form and precision required by a multi-disciplinary user base in science. DiSSCo is harmonising digitisation, curation and publication processes and workflows across the scientific collections in Europe and enables linking of occurrence, genomic, chemical and morphological data classes as well as publications and experts to the physical object. In this paper we will present the socio-cultural and governance aspects of this research infrastructure. DiSSCo is receiving political support from 11 countries in Europe and will gradually change its funding model from institutional to national funding, with temporary funding from the EC to support the preparation and development. Solutions to achieve large scale digitisation are currently designed in the EC funded ICEDIG project to underpin the future large scale digitisation carried out by the countries. Unified virtual (digitisation on demand) and transnational physical access to the collections is over the next four years being developed in the EC funded SYNTHESYS+ project. The governance of DiSSCo is designed to gradually change from a steering committee composed of a few large natural history museums contributing in cash to initiate the development into a legal entity in which national consortia are represented, with a central coordination office for daily management. Each country individually decides how its entities (scientific collection facilities, research councils, governmental bodies) are organised in their national consortium. A stakeholder and user forum, Scientific Advisory Board and International Advisory Board will ensure that DiSSCo will be functional in enabling science across disciplines and within the international landscape of infrastructures. Training and short scientific missions are being developed in the MOBILISE COST Action to build capacity in FAIR data production, publication and usage of scientific collection-derived data in Europe and to initiate the socio-cultural changes needed in the collection-holding institutes. A Helpdesk is being constructed in the SYNTHESYS+ and DiSSCo Prepare projects to further facilitate the use and scientific use cases have been collected in ICEDIG to develop and facilitate e-services tailored to scientific needs.

How to Go to Heaven, or How Heaven Goes? Natural Science and Interpretation in Cotton Mather's “Biblia Americana” (1693–1728)

2008 ◽  
Vol 81 (2) ◽  
pp. 278-329 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reiner Smolinski
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual History ◽  
Natural Science ◽  
Creation Story ◽  
Cotton Mather ◽  
Academic Network ◽  
American Intellectual ◽  
The Creation ◽  
American Intellectual History ◽  
Untapped Resource

Cotton Mather (1663–1728), New England's Puritan polymath, participated in a global academic network. In his immense commentary “Biblia Americana,” a significant untapped resource of American intellectual history, he evaluated early Enlightenment scholarship as he weighed in on such hotly debated issues as the creation story, Noah's flood, and the Mosaic miracles.

Heritage of al-Farabi in art-cultural and pedagogical understanding

2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 196-206
Author(s):  
L. Zolotareva ◽  
◽  
Y. Zolotareva ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Arts ◽  
Natural Science ◽  
Art History ◽  
Scientific Article ◽  
Biographical Sketch ◽  
Arab Muslim ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Creation ◽  
History Classes

The relevance of the scientific article is due to the significant date of 2020 – the 1150th anniversary of the birth and 1060th anniversary of the death of Abu Nasr Ibn Muhammad al-Farabi-an outstanding thinker-scientist of the East, philosopher, encyclopedic, great humanist. At the world art history classes on the theme «Culture of the Arab-Muslim East», at creative seminars on the history of arts of Kazakhstan, the image of al-Farabi, recreated in the visual arts, and his humanitarian heritage are discussed. Al-Farabi is the author of commentaries on the writings of Aristotle (hence his honorary title of «Second teacher») and Plato. He is credited with the creation of the Otrar library. It should be recalled that in 1975, on a large international scale, Moscow, Alma-Ata and Baghdad celebrated the 1100th anniversary of the birth of al-Farabi. His irreplaceable intellectual heritage: he has works on ethics, politics, psychology, natural science, music, but especially known works on logic and philosophy. The main questions of the article: a brief biographical sketch of al-Farabi, about the artists A. Ismailov, S. Kalmakhanov, K. Azhibekuly, the creation of the image of al- Farabi in their creative heritage.

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