*How can an integrated approach enhance the offerings of communities of practice?
The Natural Sciences Collections Association (NatSCA) is the UK Subject Specialist Network for natural science collections. As part of our work we hold data on collections across the UK & Ireland, promote standards and training, and maintain communication networks.
We would welcome an integrated approach to institution and collection-level data, for example extending GRSciColl’s approach and incorporating TDWG CD standards, to make the catalogue data we hold on/for our community more visible, discoverable, connected and useful. For example, we hold impressive data sourced by UK community initiative FENSCORE in the 1980s-90s – thousands of collector/institution-based records including geographical and taxonomic scope, size, published references, etc., now effectively siloed due to outdated infrastructure. As we seek to revive this, we are looking to an integrated solution to enhance sustainability and use.
An integrated global catalogue would also offer our community enhanced opportunities for international connectivity – for example around world collections held across the wider UK (if the catalogue extends to collection-level descriptions).
*What do these communities require to be able to carry out their work efficiently and support their collections?
Communities of practice like NatSCA’s can help make global initiatives ‘real’ locally – using established networks and infrastructure to help maintain data or promote best practice.
In NatSCA’s case, we require more biodiversity informatics expertise to make our catalogue data more effective for external users (e.g. to facilitate research or collaboration opportunities), and are connecting to UK centres such as NHM Digitise to enhance this.
Our collections community benefits from user-friendly ‘ways in’, low-cost solutions and minimum duplication of effort – even large significant UK collections can be an early stage of the biodiversity informatics journey, or may have low in-house resource.
NatSCA use our catalogue-type data ourselves in advocacy (promoting significance of wider UK collections) or to monitor sector health (including collections at risk, staffing resource, storage / care needs). This means we have needs for linked data that may be outside that of a world catalogue.
*What risks need to be addressed?
Sustainability. Overload. Lack of engagement.