iDigBio is now the largest virtual collection of natural history specimens in the world. The National Science Foundation-sponsored initiative surged past 100 million digitized records in July 2017.
“What’s exciting about being at more than 100 million specimen records is you can ask larger questions over space, time and biodiversity. Big data sheds light not just on one species but whole blocks of species aquatic and terrestrial,” said Larry Page, director of iDigBio. “The more data we have, the better we’ll be able to predict the impacts of climate change, human disease, landscape modifications and changes that will impact crops.”
Page is a past president of the Natural Science Collections Alliance.
The project is based at the University of Florida with the Florida Museum of Natural History and Florida State University as core partners. iDigBio has amassed data from more than 1,900 collections from about 820 institutions in its online portal.
Learn more at https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/museum-digitization-program-idigbio-rockets-past-100-million-specimen-records/.