Prioritising scientific and societal needs for data of private natural history collections

This report will address how private collections can be included in Europe’s digitisation efforts. First, it is necessary to identify the current volume, scope and level of digitisation of private collections within Europe to have a better view of the background and inform our next steps. Secondly, a protocol to keep this inventory up to date in the future is proposed. Finally, we provide a communication strategy to stimulate awareness and participation among private collection owners about digitisation. Overall, it appears that privately owned natural history collections hold a large potential to add to the growing amount of digitised specimen data. Private collections will need to receive more attention in the future to identify how these can be incorporated within initiatives such as the DiSSCo Research Infrastructure.   

ICEDIG report, Deliverable D2.2, Task 2.2, WP2.