1. Cody W. Thompson, Ph.D. University of Michigan
Attribution patterns in mammal collections before and after the digitization age
Cody W. Thompson, Ph.D.
University of Michigan

2. What is the digitization age?
In the mammal collection community…
The digitization age started nearly 40 years ago using punch cards on mainframe computers
Digitization efforts focused primarily on computerizing paper catalogs
Might include georeferencing with resources available
To a lesser extent – Imaging specimens, imaging paper collections, archiving media specimens, etc.
So, where are we now in the mammal collection community?
Good question!!!
Let’s use UMMZ Mammal Collection as an example

3. Looking at the UMMZ Mammals (1800s & 1900s)
1817 – University of Michigan founded
1837 – Cabinet of Natural History established by the state of Michigan
1913 – UMMZ formed as an independent research museum
1977 – With NSF support, UMMZ Mammals begins to digitize paper catalog

4. Looking at the UMMZ Mammals timeline (1980s & 1990s)
1982 – Full computerization achieved using Taxir on university's mainframe
1984 – Additional NSF support completes digitization of UMMZ Mammals special collections
1994 – UMMZ Mammals began using Filemaker on its own machines
1994 – NSF supports the first grant to establish the Animal Diversity Web

5. Looking at the UMMZ Mammals timeline (2000s)
2001 – 17 mammal collections, including the UMMZ, create the Mammal Networked Information System (MaNIS) with NSF support
2001 – GBIF officially established
2002 – UMMZ Mammals participates in Great Lakes flora and fauna project funded by IMLS (more later…)
2007 – UMMZ Mammals fully georeferenced via Manis project

6. Looking at the UMMZ Mammals timeline (2010s)
2010 – VertNet established with NSF funding
2011 – iDigBio created with NSF support
2013 – MaNIS goes offline
2013 – UMMZ Mammals available on VertNet search portal
2014 – UMMZ Mammals available on GBIF and iDigBio search portals via VertNet IPT
2014 – UMMZ Mammals develops Google Scholar profile

7. Looking at the UMMZ Mammals timeline (2010s)
2015 – University of Michigan natural history collections join Specify project
2017 – UMMZ collaborates on NSF-funded oVert project
2018 – University of Michigan becomes founding member of the Specify consortium
Pending – University of Michigan developing its own IPT to deliver collection data to aggregators

8. What does this mean? -128,001 databased records-

9. What does this mean? -Increased Data Usage-
VertNet (1 April 2014 to 28 February 2015)
4,076 total searches (371 per month)
61,893 total records searched (5,627 per month)
838 total downloads (70 per month)
68,640 total records downloaded (70,408 per month)
GBIF (15 March 2014 to 9 March 2015)
6,146 total downloads (~512 per month)
iDigBio (1 January to 28 February 2015)
1,930 total searches (965 per month)
193,524 total records downloaded (387,524 per month)

10. What does this mean? -Increased Specimen Access-
UMMZ Annual Report Data ( )
Total Research Visitors – 61
Total Public Visitors – 614
Total Visitor Days – 1,132
Total Loans – 28
Total Specimens/Samples Loaned – 415
Total Data Requests – 25
Total Publications – 16 (that I know about)

11. What does this mean? -Deeper Collection Access-
Great Lakes Flora & Fauna Project (UMMZ & UM Libraries collaboration)
Funded in 2002
Also included UMMZ Fishes and UM Herbarium
27,216 mammal specimen images
6,035 pages of field notes
146 historical maps
Results – 132,094 page views since 2011! 66,686 page views in 2015 alone.

12. What does this mean? -Increased Attribution-
I am not sure…
UMMZ Mammals Google Scholar Profile
1,049 known citations (584 citations since 1977)
57,926 indirect citations
17,504 indirect citations since 2013
H-index – 100 (highly productive and impactful)
i10-index – 542 (highly cited)

13. UMMZ Mammals Citation Trends (1977-2017)
iDigBio
MaNIS,GBIF
VertNet

14. MSB Mammals Citation Trends (1977-2017)
VertNet
iDigBio
MaNIS,GBIF

15. Collection Comparison
UMMZ Mammals
Founded in 1837
7th largest collection in western hemisphere
Rapid growth in 1920s-1960s
~130,000 cataloged specimens
Nearly 10,000 specimens with tissue
MSB Mammals
Founded in 1928
2nd largest collection in western hemisphere
Rapid growth in 1970s-now
~300,000 cataloged specimens
Nearly 250,000 specimens with tissue

16. Data Aggregator Citations
Google Scholar Search – “aggregator name” & “mammal”
iDigBio – 112 citations
VertNet – 324 citations
GBIF – ~3,450 citations
MaNIS – ~8,450 citations
What mammal collections were used?

17. Final Thoughts
Important to continue to share collection data openly and widely
Increasing loss of biodiversity
Increasing the general public’s science literacy
Increasing interest in STEM education
However, also important to recognize the source of the data
Continue to advocate for our collections with our administrators and legislators
Tangible research products are the gold standard!