Biotic Interactions In Natural History Collections: Continuing to Extend Digital Records across Communities, Platforms, Collections, and Institutions

Hallway discussions at SPNHC 2019 in Chicago set in motion a long-discussed collaboration between Arctos and Global Biotic Interactions (GloBI). We have come a long way in the threeyears since, and the number of documented relationships in Arctos that are indexed by GloBI doubled in 2020/2021 to include about 150K specimen-based interaction claims and continues to grow. Nonetheless, there still remain hurdles for both platforms to achieve the goals we have set out for connecting related museum records across collections and documenting their biotic interactions. We will discuss the backgrounds of Arctos and GloBI and how their goals align. Also, we'll explore our shared desire to deepen our collaboration; primarily by extending the digital records managed in Arctos through the interactions resolved in GloBI. We will show how GloBI's ability to index biotic interactions enhances the quality of Arctos' records, improves management features, and adds documentation. By sharing our hands-on experience in extending the reach of our Natural History collections beyond their institutional silos, we hope to inspire discussion in the broader biodiversity data community about how to better integrate the valuable evidence-based knowledge in our collections data.

Presented as a poster at the meeting of the Society of Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC) 5-10 June 2022 in Edinburgh, Scotland.