The Natural Science Collections Facility Natural Science Collections - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

The Natural Science Collections Facility

Natural Science Collections

Collections in South Africa

• Over 80 different institutions hold natural

science collections (eg. ARC, SANBI, SAIAB, 11 museums (national, provincial and one municipal), most universities, conservation agencies

• Total of more than 140 different collections

with >30 million specimens / samples

The South African Research Infrastructure Roadmap

Seven RIs were selected by DST for implementation in 2017:

• 1. The SA Network of Health and Demographic Surveillance

Sites

• 2. National Centre for Digital Language Resources (NCDLR)
• 3. Distributed Platform for “Omics” Research (Diplomics)
• 4. An expanded National Terrestrial Environmental

Observation Network

• 5. Shallow Marine and Coastal Research Infrastructure
• 6. Natural Sciences Collection Facility
• 7. Nuclear medicine

DST have provided R51 million over 3 years for the NSCF

What are critical criteria for RIs?

• Research Infrastructure (RI) must be used by the

scientific community for conducting cutting edge research for the generation, exchange and preservation of knowledge. A national RI is a service to research which:

• Must be openly accessible to researchers
• Data must be made openly accessible
• Must be used for training and capacity

development

• Must address national priorities

The Natural Science Collections Facility Challenge of transforming highly fragmented landscape, with many staffing and resourcing challenges that date back many years … to meet RI requirements

Central Co-ordinating Hub - SANBI

Iziko Museum Natural Sciences National Museum Natural Sciences SAIAB Eastern Cape Natural Science Museums KZN Museum Durban Natural Science Museums Ditsong Museum Natural Sciences SANBI Herbaria ARC: National Collections UKZN Herbaria WITS Palaeont

• ology

UCT Bolus Herbarium WITS Herbarium

Overall aim of the NSCF

To ensure that collections contribute, through high quality research and data, to addressing issues of socio-economic importance

Objectives (red=data related):

• 1. Collections secure and accessible for research

(physical and virtual collection – imaging of specimens, scanning of field notes, accession registers)

• 2. Database of collections accessible and used for

managing collections, research and decision-making

• 3. Collections and data are used for research that

addresses issues of national and global relevance

• 4. Collections are used as a reference for providing

services to identify biological specimens

• 5. Collections valued for serving society through

education, citizen science and public understanding projects

Current situation: total = +12 million specimens / specimen lots in 40 institutions; 5 million records in databases

1000000 2000000 3000000 4000000 5000000 6000000 7000000 8000000 9000000

Plants Animals Rocks and fossils Number of Specimens not databased databased

Current situation

Challenges with software – wide range used with variation even in same institution Data quality:

• challenges with names / identifications (outdated or

missing or incorrect)

• locality data and georeferencing - gaps, missing, inaccurate
• metadata – generally missing

Procedures, standards and guidelines – generally lacking Capacity – major constraint (people and skills) Images and scans of documents - no standards or systems; most documents have no digital version or even copies

Plans for the next 3 years

• Common standards, procedures and workflows for

data

• Migration to standard software (BRAHMS, Specify)
• Upgrading of data sets: vertebrates, macrofungi, Karoo

fossils, 2 plant families (verification (including taxonomic / identification), georeferencing, cleaning)

• Imaging of type specimens for the same groups –

virtual collection

• Scanning of accession registers, field notes
• Capacity development – staff at institutions and

contract staff appointed

Resources

• Data Working Group with representatives from

institutions – provide input, take decisions back to institutions for implementation

• Working Group Co-ordinator – lead development of

documents, and implementation of plans

• SANBI BIM staff – vast experience with BRAHMS
• SAIAB expertise and other expertise at institutions and

access to server space for Specify

• BHL – link to expertise and equipment for document

scanning

• Contract staff to assist with data upgrading, imaging of

specimens and scanning of documents

• Contract specialists for assistance with training and

data migration to Specify.

• We are very grateful to DST for recognising the

collections as important research infrastructure

• Thanks to the collection institutions that are

participating, and those that have offered their resources to the Facility.

• We welcome suggestions!!

Thanks