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Calling all collectors! iDigBio Survey on Biological Outliers
by Stanley, Katelin 23 Feb '16

23 Feb '16

Calling all biodiversity specimen collectors and preparators! iDigBio's Outlier Detection and Documentation by Collectors (ODD Collectors) Working Group would be grateful for 10-15 minutes of your time to complete an anonymous survey related to your experience with "outliers" (or "anomalies" or "oddities") in biodiversity collections. For our usage, outliers are defined as individual specimens that differ from a previously documented or perceived general norm within a taxon in any biological characteristic such as morphology, anatomy, distribution, behavior, phenology, or ecology. To participate, follow the link below. We hope to see your response by March 22, 2016. https://ufl.qualtrics.com/jfe1/form/SV_e2nOw1VWI25Rn2B We would also appreciate your help in promoting the survey by forwarding this email to any interested parties, "liking" our iDigBio Facebook post (https://www.facebook.com/iDigBio/) and retweeting our iDigBio tweet (https://twitter.com/iDigBio/status/702178743956205568) Please direct questions to Katelin Stanley (kstanley(a)bio.fsu.edu<mailto:kstanley@bio.fsu.edu>) or Austin Mast (amast(a)bio.fsu.edu<mailto:amast@bio.fsu.edu>). Thanks for considering this request! With best regards, Katelin Stanley, Austin Mast, and the rest of iDigBio's ODD Collectors Working Group

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DCMI Webinar - Creating Content Intelligence: Harmonized Taxonomy & Metadata in the Enterprise Context
by DCMI Announce 11 Jan '16

11 Jan '16

*******PLEASE EXCUSE THE CROSS-POSTING******* Creating Content Intelligence: Harmonized Taxonomy & Metadata in the Enterprise Context *DCMI/ASIST Joint Webinar* *===========================================================* *:: Presenter:* Stephanie Lemieux *:: Date:* Wednesday, 27 January 2016 *:: Time:* 10:00am - 11:15am EST (UTC 15:00:00 - World Clock: http://bit.ly/webinar-lemieux) *:: Registration:* http://dublincore.org/resources/training/#2016lemieux *===========================================================* *ABOUT THE WEBINAR:* Many organizations have content dispersed across multiple independent repositories, often with a real lack of metadata consistency. The attention given to enterprise data is often not extended to unstructured content, widening the gap between the two worlds and making it near impossible to provide accurate business intelligence, good user experience, or even basic findability. How do you bring all those disparate efforts together to create content intelligence across the organization? This webinar will describe the benefits and challenges in developing metadata and taxonomy across multiple functional areas, creating a unified Enterprise Content Architecture (ECA). Hear about real enterprise metadata & taxonomy harmonization projects in different contexts, including a greeting card company, a media company, an automotive manufacturer and a consumer food manufacturer. See how they worked to harmonize across a number of diverse systems that supported multiple functions, from creative processes to manufacturing to reporting. In this webinar, you will learn: - how the concept of Enterprise Content Architecture unifies multiple disciplines, including information management, data management and content strategy; - the difference and similarities between master data and business metadata; - how enterprise-level metadata and taxonomy helps drive semantic interoperability and improve business processes; - how taxonomy can be harmonized across diverse systems and provided as a service; and - how to build support and governance for enterprise-level attention to taxonomy and metadata from within a project. *Participant Experience Level:* Basic familiarity with taxonomy and metadata assumed. *ABOUT THE PRESENTER:* *Stephanie Lemieux* is the President and Primary Consultant at Dovecot Studio. She is a passionate advocate of taxonomy, search and other marvelous pursuits in content organization. She has worked with organizations in various industries, such as Nickelodeon, General Mills, UPS, and the United Nations. Prior to focusing her energies on Dovecot Studio, she was a senior consultant and taxonomy practice lead with Earley & Associates. She speaks, blogs and writes whenever she can to help spread the good taxonomy word. Stephanie has a Masters degree in Library and Information Studies (MLIS) from McGill University with a specialization in knowledge management.

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SPNHC 2016 Symposium on Mobilizing NHC Data - Call for Abstracts from iDigBio, RBGE, and UO
by Deborah Paul 05 Jan '16

05 Jan '16

Hi Everyone! Gehen Sie zu SPNHC 2016 Konferenz? Are you going to SPNHC 2016? It's in Berlin this year, from June 20 - 25, 2016. Folks from iDigBio (https://www.idigbio.org/) RBGE (http://www.rbge.org.uk/) and UO (https://uoregon.edu/) are convening a Symposium at SPNHC 2016. With this email, we'd like to invite you to submit an abstract for our consideration. *Symposium:* An International Conversation on Mobilizing Natural History Collections (NHC) Data and Integrating Data for Research. Natural History Collection (NHC) data are being mobilized all over the world. Recent preliminary worldwide survey data suggests the trend is growing. As digitization begins to become an every-day part of collections, many compelling issues vie for attention. For example, cost, prioritization, sustainability, and rates of digitization are four such issues. And, many uses for NHC data are well-known and fairly well-understood. But issues exist with the data, and there is still much legacy data to be digitally captured – before it can be shared with the world’s researchers. We invite presentations from anyone in the collections and biodiversity informatics community who is involved in the mobilization and use of NHC data. We envision an assortment of talks covering three areas: 1. digitization (including imaging) lessons learned and outstanding questions, 2. new and emerging technologies/models, and cross-discipline collaborations for digitization and georeferencing, and 3. collections data-in-action. Our speakers may be, for example, those doing the digitization and mobilization of the data; museum collection administrators actively incorporating digitization into their museum’s mission and vision; computer, information, and library scientists supporting digitization and research efforts; education and outreach staff working with citizen scientists to digitize and georeference; or those using collections data in research. *Abstract* *submission deadline is 15 March 2016. **Note Well:* SPNHC 2016 local organizers are using an online-abstract-submission system and abstract template form you can find here: http://www.spnhc2016.berlin/page15.html Please note in your submission that the abstract is intended for the*International Conversation Symposium *and indicate which track or tracks your talk will address. Please use key tags: #Digitization Lessons Learned, #New Technology, New Strategies, and / or #Collections Data-In-Action. You may direct any specific questions regarding the International Conversation Symposium to session conveners Deb Paul (dpaul(a)fsu.edu) Elspeth Haston (e.haston(a)rbge.org.uk) or Brian Westra (bwestra(a)uoregon.edu) Vielen Dank und Alles Gute für 2016, Many thanks and Happy New Year!, Deb, Elspeth, and Brian Please see the SPNHC symposia page for a detailed abstract <http://www.spnhc2016.berlin/page40.html>http://www.spnhc2016.berlin/page40.html. (please excuse cross-postings) -- -- Upcoming iDigBio Events https://www.idigbio.org/calendar -- Deborah Paul, iDigBio Technology Specialist Institute for Digital Information, 234 LSB Florida State University Tallahassee, Florida 32306 850-644-6366

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DC-2016 Call of Participation - Copenhagen, Denmark
by DCMI Announce 02 Jan '16

02 Jan '16

*DC-2016 Metadata Summit* I*nternational Conference & Annual Meeting* *Copenhagen, Denmark, | 13-16 October 2016* *Collocated with the ASIS&T Annual Meeting* *CALL FOR PARTICIPATION* *==============================* *:: Conference Website:* http://dcevents.dublincore.org/index.php/IntConf/dc-2016/schedConf/ *:: Full Call: * http://dcevents.dublincore.org/index.php/IntConf/dc-2016/schedConf/cfp *==============================* *The Metadata Summit* in Copenhagen launches DCMI's 3rd decade and provides a forum for looking forward to new challenges and backward at challenges met and challenges unresolved. Every year the DCMI community gathers for both its *Annual Meeting* and its *International Conference on Dublin Core & Metadata Applications*. The work agenda of the DCMI community is broad and inclusive of all aspects of innovation in metadata design, implementation, and best practices. While the work of the Initiative progresses throughout the year, the *Conference* and *Annual Meeting* provide the opportunity for DCMI "citizens" as well as newcomers, students, apprentices, and early career professionals to gather face-to-face to share knowledge and experience. The Summit in Copenhagen will provide for public- and private-sector initiatives beyond DCMI that are doing significant metadata work with the opportunity to come together, to compare notes, and to cast a broader light into their particular metadata work silos. Through such a gathering of the metadata communities, DCMI advances its "first goal" of promoting metadata interoperability and harmonization. *Technical Program Submissions:* The Technical Program includes peer-reviewed Papers, Project Reports, and Posters. Submission to the Technical Program will span metadata research, design, and application as a critical core value of effective information systems across domains -- science, humanities, business, government, cultural memory, and the professions. It will explore the domain-crossing intersections of metadata lifecycle documentation, publication, and management. Submissions are welcome that address the challenges of emergent areas of metadata interest including big data and big and smart metadata. The submissions to the Technical Program will be reviewed by an international panel of experts. *Submission Deadline:* 13 May 2016 *Author Notification: *22 July 2016 *Final Copy: *2 September 2016 *Professional Program Submissions:* The Professional Program is key to DCMI's education and training objective and includes *Tutorials*, *Workshops*, *Special Sessions*, and *Best Practice Posters & Demonstrations*. Submissions are reviewed by the *Conference Committee* in consultation with the *DCMI Education Committee*. Selections for the *Tutorial*, *Workshops*, and *Special Sessions* will be based on: (a) the *immediacy* of the submission to current education and training needs of metadata designers, implementers, and practitioners; and (b) the *potential* of the submission to advance innovation in both the discourse and best practice of metadata. *Best Practice Posters & Demonstrations* is a non-peer reviewed track that encourages metadata practitioners in memory institutions, galleries, government and the private sector to showcase work demonstrating innovative approaches to metadata best practices. Selections are based on whether a work presents challenging problems in context; and, whether the authors and conference delegates can benefit from poster session interactions. *Special & Panel Sessions, Workshops, and Tutorials* * Proposal Deadline:* 15 March 2016 * Author Notification:* 15 April 2016 *Best Practice Posters & Demonstration* * Submission Deadline:* 15 July 2016 * Author Notification:* 29 July 2016 ------- Stuart Sutton DCMI Managing Director DCMI is a project of ASIS&T 8555 16th Street, Suite 850, Silver Spring, Maryland 20910

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In Memoriam Dr Richard Pankhurst
by Mergen Patricia 14 Dec '15

14 Dec '15

Dear Colleagues, On behalf of TDWG we are very sorry to inform you that Richard John Pankhurst passed away on Tuesday 26 March after fighting oesophageal cancer for many years. He was a very important contributer and friend of TDWG, as can be judged from his short CV from the BioCISE directory: Dr Richard Pankhurst began his career in computing in the computer section at CERN, Geneva in 1963, and moving back to Cambridge to work on Computer-Aided Design in 1966. In 1971 he moved to the Botany School, Cambridge to begin work on his PANKEY programs for identification and key construction. This was continued at the Botany department of the Natural History Museum from 1974 until 1991, where he was for many years curator of the British herbarium, and also worked on the Flora Meso-Americana. "Biological Identification", 1978, was the first textbook on computer methods in identification. A new version of this book was published by C.U.P in 1991. Also published in that year was the Flora of the Outer Hebrides. With over 50 publications of refereed papers and books in the fields of taxonomic computing he has made major contributions to these fields. Dr. Pankhurst has been very active recently in programming and managing botanical databases (Flora Europaea, BSBI database and PANDORA) and systems with images. He was appointed Principal Scientific Officer at the RGB Edinburgh in 1991. Dr. Pankhurst served on various committees of British and international organizations, among others. Botanical Society of the British Isles, Committee for Scotland and Database Committee. Botanical Society of Scotland, Council. Taxonomic Databases Working Group, convener of Descriptors Group. International Organisation for Plant Information, co-convener of Information Systems Committee, Checklist Committee. Dr. Pankhurst was the head of the Department of Taxonomic Computing at RGBE. After his official retirement, he compiled a large database of the Rose family. His work on recording the wild flowers of the Outer Hebrides took him frequently to these remote islands on behalf of the Botanical Society of the British Isles. His interest in Taraxacum (dandelions) was acknowledged when a species found only on St. Kilda was named *Taraxacum pankhurstianum*. In Richard, not only a very important scientist was lost to our community, but also a very pleasant collaborator and friend . <patricia.mergen(a)africamuseum.be> Dr. Patricia Mergen (General Secretary of TDWG, on behalf of the Executive Committee) Head of Biodiversity Information and Cybertaxonomy Royal Museum for Central Africa Leuvensesteenweg 13 B-3080 Tervuren Belgium + 32 2 769 5 *626* patricia.mergen(a)africamuseum.be

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ASIS&T Webinar: Academic Search Engine Optimization of Web Documents for Google Scholar
by DCMI Announce 05 Dec '15

05 Dec '15

********* PLEASE EXCUSE THE CROSS-POSTING ********* *ASIS&T Webinar:* Academic Search Engine Optimization of Web Documents for Google Scholar =========================== *DATE/TIME:* 9 December 2015 at 10:00am EST (World Clock: http://bit.ly/asist_webinar-Dec2015) *REGISTRATION URL: * https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/160653313167616769 *WEBINAR WEBPAGE:* https://www.asist.org/events/webinars/academic-search-engine-optimization/ *REGISTRATION FEE:* Free for ASIS&T members; $15 for non-members =========================== *ABSTRACT:* Academic search engine optimization, also known as ASEO, is the creation, publication, and modification of scholarly literature in a way that makes it easier for academic search engines to access, interpret, and rank scholarly documents. Additionally, search-engine friendly academic documents are ones that are written, formatted, organized, and labeled for people who use academic search engines. Successful ASEO implementation communicates. What do librarians, information architects, and academic professionals need to know about building search-engine friendly documents for Google Scholar and other academic search engines? In this webinar, SEO pioneer and veteran Shari Thurow will debunk some common myths and misconceptions about academic SEO and show you how to properly optimize different types of scholarly web documents. Topics covered in this webinar include: Academic SEO overview - 4 fundamental building blocks of academic SEO - How to optimize individual document types (PDF, Word, HTML, etc.) - The role of metadata - Creating and optimizing wayfinders for academic literature - Common myths & misconceptions This webinar includes real-time examples and a downloadable bibliography for academic SEO resources. *PRESENTER:* *Shari Thurow*, Founder & SEO Director, Omni Marketing Interactive (http://www.search-usability.com) Shari Thurow is a contributing editor for the ASLIB Journal of Information Management. She also served on the Board of Directors of the Information Architecture Institute (IAI) and the User Experience Professionals Association (UXPA). She is currently the founder and SEO director at Omni Marketing Interactive, a full-service SEO, website usability, information architecture, and web design firm. Shari has designed and promoted sites since 1995 and is a pioneer in the area of search engine-friendly website design. She is the author of Search Engine Visibility and When Search Meets Web Usability. After registering, you will receive a confirmation e-mail containing information about joining the webinar. View System Requirements: http://support.citrixonline.com/s/G2W/Help/SystemRequirements

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Workshop: Promoting Synergy in the Innovative Use of Environmental Data
by Simpson, Annie 18 Nov '15

18 Nov '15

Colleagues: NatureServe and USGS are co-organizing an NSF-funded workshop that is convening a broad cross section of fields – federal natural resource management and conservation agencies, academics, NGOs, private sector, citizen science leaders – to engage in a needs assessment for generating national biogeospatial data layers. This workshop, which has the lengthy title of "Promoting synergy in the innovative use of environmental data across academia, non-profits, local and state governments, industry and the Federal government," is intended to provide a big step forward in identifying regional, national, and continental scale spatial datasets on biodiversity, vegetation, climate, and environment to support cross jurisdictional decision making. It is being held in Washington, DC, this December 2-4, just 2 weeks from now. We have commitments already from a broad and diverse set of leaders among the major federal agencies, so it will be a great relationship building opportunity as well. There are only a few spaces left, but if you would be available to come to DC to engage in these national scale data issues, we would be pleased to have your participation. More info and the registration button can be found here: http://www.natureserve.org/news-events/events/promoting-synergy-innovative-… Very limited travel funding is still available for non-federal participants. Please email healy_hamilton(a)natureserve.org for details. Interested federal employees should contact Annie_Simpson(a)usgs.gov. Best regards, Healy Hamilton, NatureServe <http://www.natureserve.org/> Chief Scientist Gerald (Stinger) Guala, Director of BISON <http://bison.usgs.ornl.gov/> and ITIS <http://www.itis.gov/>, U.S. Geological Survey

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iDigBio Webinar: DAMmed if you Do or Don’t - Tuesday 17 November 4 PM EST
by Deborah Paul 16 Nov '15

16 Nov '15

Hi Everyone! At the recent iDigBio Summit, the topic of storing media and other data (aka "Archiving") was prominent. Storing "archival" copies of images and other digital assets can be a challenge. Ever heard of a DAM? That's a Digital Asset Management system. Come find out more about these issues - bring your questions, comments, concerns, solutions, and ideas to: iDIgBio Webinar: DAMmed if you Do or Don’t https://www.idigbio.org/content/webinar-dammed-if-you-do-or-don%E2%80%99t Day and Date: Tuesday, 17 November 2015 Time: 4 PM EST, that's 21:00 UTC Where: http://idigbio.adobeconnect.com/datamgmt Brought to you by: The iDigBio Data Management Interest Group (DMIG) DETAILS *Abstract:* How to safeguard and preserve digital assets is increasingly critical to collections digitization programs, particularly given the explosion in specimen imaging and related efforts. This webinar will look at various procedures for digital preservation and review what a digital asset management system (DAM) is and can offer. There will be a live demo of an institution-wide DAM at Yale University that serves the Peabody Museum and other campus units, with discussion of costs, timelines, features, technical needs, and how several collections management systems successfully integrated with the DAM. *Presenter*: Larry Gall, Head of Computer Systems and Entomology Collections Manager, Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University. I’m not technically a PI/coPI on a TCN, but am closely affiliated with all of the Yale ones given that I support the systems/workflow that support our content for the work. Those include Fossil Insect Collaborative (FIC), MacroAlgal Herbarium Consortium (MHC), New England Vascular Plants (NEVP), North American Lichens and Bryophytes (LBCC); and also Paleoniches as a PEN. See you there! Best, Deb, et al and yes, it's being recorded if you can't make it. -- -- Upcoming iDigBio Events https://www.idigbio.org/calendar -- Deborah Paul, iDigBio Technology Specialist Institute for Digital Information, 234 LSB Florida State University Tallahassee, Florida 32306 850-644-6366

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iDigBio Webinar: Shaping the semantic layer by mining digitised data: iDigBio's plant records and the Environment Ontology (ENVO)
by Deborah Paul 09 Nov '15

09 Nov '15

Hi Everyone, Quick reminder about a webinar tomorrow at iDigBio. Shaping the semantic layer by mining digitised data: iDigBio's plant records and the Environment Ontology (ENVO) https://www.idigbio.org/content/webinar-shaping-semantic-layer-mining-digit… From Presenter Dr. Pier Luigi Buttigieg... *Abstract*: Domain ontologies seek to represent the entities in an area of investigation alongside their interrelations in a logically coherent manner. Domain knowledge is the lifeblood of these ontologies and initiatives such as iDigBio offer valuable repositories which contain both legacy and contemporary knowledge and are ripe for mining. The Environment Ontology (ENVO) <http://bioportal.bioontology.org/ontologies/ENVO> is a domain ontology that is concerned with environments, ecosystems, habitats, and related entities. We performed a cursory text-mining exercise focusing on iDigBio's plant habitat descriptions to learn what terms and phrases the botany community - past and present - have used to describe the environments they sample. The results are being used to guide the creation of new classes and relations in ENVO, ensuring the ontology is fit to represent the environmental aspects of these early waves of digitised plant data. In this webinar, I will describe our approach, some of its early results, and the main challenges we face going forward. Find out more about the ENVO ontology tomorrow 10 November 2015. When: Tue 9 am - 10 am EST (Tallahassee, Florida), that's Tue 3:00 PM CET (Berlin, Germany) Were: http://idigbio.adobeconnect.com/datamgmt Who: Dr. Pier Luigi Buttigieg, HGF-MPG Group for Deep Sea Ecology and Technology Alfred-Wegener-Institut, email: pbuttigi(a)mpi-bremen.de and Grant Godden, Research Associate, Mint Genome Project, Buell Lab, Michigan State University, email: goddengr(a)msu.edu Best, Deb, et al -- -- Upcoming iDigBio Events https://www.idigbio.org/calendar -- Deborah Paul, iDigBio Technology Specialist Institute for Digital Information, 234 LSB Florida State University Tallahassee, Florida 32306 850-644-6366

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iDigBio Webinar: Shaping the semantic layer by mining digitised data: iDigBio's plant records and the Environment Ontology (ENVO)
by Deb Paul 29 Oct '15

29 Oct '15

Hi Everyone, You're all invited to join us at an iDigBio webinar next week: *Shaping the semantic layer by mining digitised data: ** **an encounter between iDigBio's plant records and the Environment Ontology (ENVO) *https://www.idigbio.org/content/webinar-shaping-semantic-layer-mining-digitised-data-encounter-between-idigbios-plant* ** Abstract*: Domain ontologies seek to represent the entities in an area of investigation alongside their interrelations in a logically coherent manner. Domain knowledge is the lifeblood of these ontologies and initiatives such as iDigBio offer valuable repositories which contain both legacy and contemporary knowledge and are ripe for mining. The Environment Ontology (ENVO http://bioportal.bioontology.org/ontologies/ENVO) is a domain ontology that is concerned with environments, ecosystems, habitats, and related entities. We performed a cursory text-mining exercise focusing on iDigBio's plant habitat descriptions to learn what terms and phrases the botany community - past and present - have used to describe the environments they sample. The results are being used to guide the creation of new classes and relations in ENVO, ensuring the ontology is fit to represent the environmental aspects of these early waves of digitised plant data. In this webinar, I will describe our approach, some of its early results, and the main challenges we face going forward./There is considerable scope to refine and extend this approach to other digitised data and power synergy between the semantic layer and data repositories./ *Presenters: *Dr. Pier Luigi Buttigieg HGF-MPG Group for Deep Sea Ecology and Technology Alfred-Wegener-Institut, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung c/o Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology Celsiusstrasse 1, 28359 Bremen, Germany Email: pbuttigi(a)mpi-bremen.de <mailto:pbuttigi@mpi-bremen.de> and Grant Godden Research Associate, Mint Genome Project Buell Lab http://buell-lab.plantbiology.msu.edu/index.shtml Michigan State University Email: goddengr(a)msu.edu <mailto:goddengr@msu.edu> Former iDigBio Graduate Student, Soltis Lab *Where*: http://idigbio.adobeconnect.com/datamgmt *When:* Tuesday, November 10, 2015 - 9:00am to 1:00am EST (Tallahassee, Florida) That's 3:00 pm to 4 pm CET (Berlin, Germany) See you there and please share this posting with other interested parties. Thanks! Deb Paul, et al in the iDigBio Data Management Interest Group (please excuse cross-postings) -- -- Upcoming iDigBio Eventshttps://www.idigbio.org/calendar -- Deborah Paul, iDigBio Technology Specialist Institute for Digital Information, 234 LSB Florida State University Tallahassee, Florida 32306 850-644-6366

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