Comments are now being accepted on a draft Implementation Plan for a Network Integrated Biocollections Alliance.
The Implementation Plan builds upon the work of an earlier report: A Strategic Plan for Establishing a Network Integrated Biocollections Alliance. The Strategic Plan issues a strong and urgent call for an aggressive, sustained, coordinated, and large-scale effort to digitize the nation’s biological collections in order to mobilize their data (including images) through the Internet. The draft Implementation Plan outlines the actions, timelines, and milestones required to achieve these goals.
The Implementation Plan was developed by a writing team and draws upon the discussions of a September 2012 workshop of experts in biocollections, digitization, computer science, and other relevant fields. The workshop was convened by the American Institute of Biological Sciences, with support from the National Science Foundation.
A draft of the Implementation Plan is now available for public comment at http://blogs.aibs.org/niba/. Members of the biological collections community and other stakeholders are encouraged to review the plan and submit comments to the comment section of the website or via email to publicpolicy@aibs.org.
Unfortunately, we only have a small window of opportunity to solicit, consider and incorporate public comments. However, the writing committee has pledged to consider and address all suggestions received by 26 November 2012.