NHM Science Strategy 2013 … Challenges - Digitise 20,000,000 specimens within 5 years Ian Owens, Dir. Sci.

NHM COLLECTIONS April 2013 Collection areaEstimate no of specimens No. records in database % collection in database Botany6,000,000626,000~10% Entomology32,000,000316,000<1% Mineralogy500,000422,000~95% Palaeontology9,000,000342,000~3% Zoology28,000,0001,131,000~60% TOTAL76,000,0002,837,0003%-23%

MINERALOGY Complete digitisation of collections 500,000 specimen records ~95% of collections databased 33,000 with detailed geographic information < 10% of collections <10% of collections with adequate acquisition information 14,000 records with adequate location information < 5% of collections

BOTANY Virtual Herbarium storage requirements of 1.2 PB 6,000,000 herbarium sheets 630,000 database records 10% of collections databased 120,000 scans 2%of collections scanned Questions: Drill down? – will increase storage requirements

PALAEONTOLOGY Complete digitisation (database records) with selected imaging. 9,000,000 specimens – includes 7,000 unaccessioned lots 125,000 type and figured specimens 310,000 specimen database records < 4% of collections databased 19,000 type and figured specimens databased < 16%databased 1,000 type and figured specimens imaged < 1%imaged Proposal The collections can be represented in their entirety at the specimen/species-lot level by 1,600,000 database records and 7,000 collections level description (CLD) records. 125,000 – 1,000,000 images needed - storage requirements of 50 TB

ZOOLOGY Complete digitisation (database records) of collections with imaging where appropriate 28,000,000 specimens 500,000 type specimens 1,100,000 specimens/species-lots database records 66,000 type specimen database records < 14%of type specimens databased Registered herpetology, ichthyology, and invertebrate collections 100% databased Proposal Zoology collections can be represented at the specimen/species lot level with an additional 1,200,000 database records 500,000 – 1,000,000 images needed

ENTOMOLOGY 32,000,000 specimens Digitise type specimens - database records and images 270,000 species represented by types 500,000 specimens? 51,000 type specimen database records <19% of species databased 400 type specimens imaged <0.02%type specimens imaged 1-4 images/specimen required – 50TB storage requirement Digitise rest of collections as appropriate 316,000 specimen database records 1% of collections databased

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