SCAN Survey Results: Engaging the Public with Insect Digitization

Workflows

Dr. Melody BashamHasbrouck Insect Collection

Outreach SpecialistProject Director Insect ARium

Arizona State University

SCAN includes the following institutions:

Northern Arizona University

University of Arizona University of Colorado at Boulder

Colorado State University Texas Tech University

Texas AgriLife Research Arizona State University

Denver Museum of Nature and Science New Mexico State University

University of New Mexico

Current Goals and Accomplishments to Date

•In August SCAN had their first meet-up at Arizona State University•The goal is to develop a plan and a sustainable model that would allow for more specimens to be entered into the database.•SCAN plans to adopt and encourage the broader use of virtual collaboration•SCAN hopes to increase the rate of identification.•Has two websites. One site is informative, the other is a Symbiota portal hosted at iDigBio.  •9 out of 10 SCAN collection members already have their data in the portal. •More than 30 videos are now up at YouTube for training purposes for SCAN. Video images were captured using Zoomify so that zooming is excellent. SCAN hopes to ultimately be able to act as an online Southwest Bug Guide.•Georeferencing is also a major goal of the SCAN TCN. SCAN is sending two graduate students to the georeferencing workshop to be trained to teach others for their TCN.

2. Which of the following steps of the workflow would you view to be the easiest to engage the public in?

5. What are your views to the value of crowdsourcing and or citizen science projects as an integral part of the digitization process?

6. To what extent do you think public participation in a digitization project should have meaningful significance in order for a program to be effective?

7. Based on your own experiences what challenges have you observed in having the public participate in the digitization workflow? Put NA if you do not presently have the public involved in your digitization process.

8. Are there any specific groups in the community who you would view as being valuable to your digitization project?

9. To what extent do you think new technologies such as mobile devices and social networking tools would make public participation in digitization projects more accessible?

1. It might be timing saving and would increase the quality of the data if we could capture images of the specimen labels.

2. Developing a cyberinfrastructure environment would allow for the public to help us in a way that could be vetted by participating curators/data managers (Symbiota already has most, if not all, of the tools we would need to make this happen.)

3. We need to make the process *fun* for the public. (meaningful)4. One could imagine a separate database or "class of data" within the

SCAN database of data contributed by citizen scientists on any number of topics from phenology to identification tools. Other s commented on the need for field images

5. The "digitization workflow" is what we need to capture data from our specimens I see that as separate than citizen science. That's not to say that this process could not also include citizen scientists. I am planning to engage the public for help in the data entry process, however I would be hesitant to call it a "citizen scientist project" since there would not necessarily be an immediate reward for the participants. (Lack of meaning)

1. 60% viewed that digitization tasks should be purposeful and meaningful to the public.

2. That data entry and imaging were the easiest tasks and would be the best task to integrate in citizen science.

3. 70% viewed citizen science as to be an important to very important component of public involvement.

4. Most SCAN groups (70%) of respondents are not currently engaging the public in the digitization process.

5. The need to make working with insect labels accessible and user friendly.

6. The need for a community portal. 7. The need for field images to support existing collection.

What we now know. . . Digitization of our collections serves science but it can also . .

•Democratize science•It can be used as a tool to include other ontological-based worldviews•It can be integrated with new technologies promoting wider outreach and public participation.

•The results of the survey shows the need to have the public involved in digitization tasks that allows them to feel they have some ownership and or provides meaningful experiences.

SCAN is currently looking at the possibility of a SCAN Mobile App

There is a growing number of people who are iphoneographers (people with phone cameras) who are out in the field taking macro images of insects. These individuals could upload them via a mobile app which could then be vetted by SCAN curators/editors. The app would automatically georeference the images and could be connected to a community portal within Symbiota. These images could be used to cross-reference with existing specimens in SCAN collections.•There are a number of mobile Apps that are being used as a tool in citizen science but do not necessarily connect with an institution-based collection or database.

For more information about this presentation:Contact Melody Basham at melody.basham@asu.eduAbout SCAN contact Neil Cobb at Neil.Cobb@nau.edu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCIS67h3oe0&feature=youtu.be

INSECT DIGITIZATION AND NEW EDUCATIONAL TOOLS

Currently the Hasbrouck Insect Collection at ASU is working with new technology and a digitization workflow that aims to connect the public with 3D images of specimens from the collection.