Workshop 01|2024
The 2024 annual SwissCollNet workshop took place on 19th of January 2024 in UniS, Berne with nearly 150 participants. With the title "Digitization processes in natural history collections: from drawers to data publication" the workshop aimed to cover all aspects of digitization in the various disciplines of natural history collections.
In the morning participants were updated about SwissCollNet's activities with a particular focus on the project "Collection Survey" for a register of natural history collections hosted in Switzerland and the project "SVNHC" (Swiss Virtual Natrual History Collections).
Then, representatives of SwissCollNet projects presented their projects and experiences in digitizing and imaging specimens and objects in the fields of botany, entomology and palaeontology.
In the afternoon, the participants actively discussed in break out sessions about the various digitization processes and issues on the following proposed topics :
- Digitization of the historical palaeontological collection at the Naturmuseum Winterthur
- Standardizing Data Standards
- Challenges in data cleaning and normalization of natural history collections
- From physical to digital
Finally, all particpants learned about the project E-Specimina led by the Institute for Systematic and Evolutionary Botany of UZH (supported by Swissuniversities). The day was then concluded by a presentation on the collaborative future of the SVNHC, InfoSpecies and GBIF.ch by Glenn Litsios, director of info fauna, followed by the closing words by Britta Allgöwer, member of the SwissCollNet Steering board and member of SCNAT executive board.
During the day, visitors from the Canadian Forest Service at Natural Resources Canada were represented. Participants were also able to discover the poster of their project to digitize natural history collections "Bringing scientific collections into the digital age: Essential resources for science-based decision making".
Once again, many thanks to all the participants for their enthusiasm on this wonderful day!
For more information about this workshop, please refer to the page of the event.
Plenary talks
- Update on SwissCollNet Activities
- Collection registry:” One Swiss Collection” publication
- National aggregator (SVNHC)
- Sharing experiences on rapid digitization of herbarium specimens by conveyor belt
- Bulk 3D scanning of insect specimens
- The Santiago Roth Collections in Switzerland through the looking-glass
- E-Specimina Unveiled: Leveraging ORD and FAIR Principles for Management and Use of Natural History Collections
- Charting the collaborative future of the SVNHC, InfoSpecies and GBIF.ch
- Wrap up and outlook