Increasing the efficiency of digitization workflows for herbarium specimens.

Area of Science:

• Botany
• Biodiversity Informatics
• Digital Curation

Background:

• The New York Botanical Garden Herbarium houses an estimated 7.3 million plant specimens, representing a significant botanical resource.
• Digitization efforts have been ongoing for 17 years, focusing on fundable subsets due to collection size.
• Current digitization rates are insufficient to complete the collection within realistic time and budget constraints.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate and implement new strategies for accelerating the digitization of large herbarium collections.
• To explore cost-effective and time-efficient methods for data capture and specimen imaging.
• To prepare for larger-scale digitization projects through programs like the National Science Foundation's Advancing Digitization of Biological Collections.

Main Methods:

• Selective digitization of fundable subsets of specimens over successive grant cycles.
• Testing new protocols including data collaboration, field book digitization, and partial data entry/imaging.
• Utilizing optical character recognition (OCR) technology for specimen image data extraction.

Main Results:

• To date, 1.3 million specimens have been databased, requiring approximately 130,000 staff hours.
• The current rate averages 10 specimens per hour, projecting a need for an additional 600,000 hours to complete the collection.
• New methods are being tested to significantly increase digitization efficiency and reduce costs.

Conclusions:

• The traditional rate of herbarium specimen digitization is unsustainable given current biodiversity and economic challenges.
• Innovative approaches, including OCR and collaborative data efforts, are crucial for efficient and timely digitization.
• Securing funding and leveraging new programs are essential for advancing the digitization of biological collections.