1. GigaPan megapixel imaging and best practices for digitizing entomological collections NCSU Insect Museum, North Carolina State University Metadata Research Center/SILS/University North Carolina, Chapel Hill NC STATE UNIVERSITY Entomological Collections Network Meeting Reno, 2011 Katja Seltmann, Babi Hammond, Matthew Bertone, Jane Greenberg, and Andrew R. Deans

2. [Outline]  Part 1: Whole drawer imaging & GigaPan at NCSU Insect Museum  Part 2: Benchmarking Efforts

3. [NCSU Insect Museum]  Founded in 1952  Past/present researchers: –Historically: Z.P. Metcalf (Auchenorrhyncha), C.S. Brimley (NC insects), T.B. Mitchell (Anthophila), C.F. Smith (Aphididae), M.H. Farrier (Acari), D.A. Young (Auchenorrhyncha), H.H. Neunzig (Pyraloidea), L.L. Deitz (Auchenorrhyncha) –Currently: A.R. Deans (Hymenoptera) & B.M. Wiegmann (Diptera) –Head Curator: Bob Blinn  Currently one of the two largest insect collections in the Southeast US (~1.4 million)

4. [The Concept]  A high-quality image for each drawer in the collection –“Virtual Museum”

5. [GigaPan]  Robot developed for Mars rover –NASA + CMU  Commercially = robot plus software  Robot takes multiple images using standard camera  Software stitches images  GigaPan website GigaPan Epic 100 with camera

6. [GigaPan: Components] OUR SETUP:  GigaPan Epic 100  Canon G11  Copy stand  Continuous fluorescent daylight lamps  Power supplies for GigaPan and Canon $450.00 $500.00 $100.00 $500.00 $100.00 ~$1,650.00 $1,000 http://www.gigapan.org/profiles/23796/

7. [GigaPan: People] Costs:  10 minutes per GigaPan  $2 dollars a drawer  2500 drawers ~$5,000 http://www.gigapan.org/profiles/23796/

8. <$10,000! for 2,500 drawers a great success [GigaPan: Total] http://www.gigapan.org/profiles/23796/

10. zoom tools panorama snapshots w/comments geo-reference explore score panorama info panorama comments

11. [GigaPan: Methods]  http://blog.insectmuseum.org/?tag=gigapan –Bertone and Deans + Gigpan

15. [Results]  So far NCSU Insect Museum (ID 23796) has 1783 panoramas –Most panoramas of any user so far –Major effort began in June 2010 –Expect to finish in the Spring  Panoramas average 0.2 gigapixels (200 mp)  http://www.gigapan.org/profiles/23796/  Remote annotation & increased interaction with the collection http://www.gigapan.org/profiles/23796/

16. [Results]  Juried gallery winner –Fine Conference on Gigapixel Imaging  Work highlighted by: –Science Magazine –New Scientist –Wired –National Geographic –Others...  One Panorama has 23,292 views so far  181,019 Total Views

17. [Realized & Potential Issues]  Dynamic collection  Only one view of specimens*  Resolution of small specimens  Large specimens obscure labels*  Parallax/distortion  Accommodating larger drawers  Hosting & annotation capabilities limited using GigaPan website  Poor marketers *may not be alleviated by any system Issues are all future opportunities

18. [Realized & Potential Outcomes]  Remote identification  Curatorial advice*  Non-expert/public engagement  Better informed donations*  Better informed requests  Megapixel imaging for other purposes –Linking of specimens to habitat panoramas* –Micro images & remote taxonomy *unanticipated Outcomes are all future opportunities

20. “Lots of hairs” “Not much here (a bit abstract)”

21. Panorama by Alex Smith (University of Guelph)

22. [Part 2: Benchmarks] We have some ideas.. might even call them hypotheses… are we right?  Utility of whole drawer imaging of collections in contrast with other methods?  Most used websites?  What online collection data is deemed useful?  Who finds online images and collection data useful?

23. [ information science ]  No way of knowing if what we are doing is successful unless we benchmark and test that success  Define best practices by first discovering how the community actual uses collections  Partnered with Babi Hammond at UNC, Chapel Hill –CollectionsWeb RCN –Developed a survey to establish these benchmarks http://tinyurl.com/625xeb9 6…2…5…xeb...9

24. [Help!] Promoting our survey to help us determine present best practices for digitizing entomological collections http://tinyurl.com/625xeb9 6…2…5…xeb...9

25. [preliminary results]  90 participants  Majority taxonomists  Primarily faculty with PhD  Need help reaching a wider audience –Looking for entomologists worldwide –Please help by sending survey through internal lists

26. [benchmark] “Which online presentations are successful?”

27. [benchmark] (results so far: tiny significance)

28. “Which online presentations are successful?” [follow up action?]

29. [benchmark survey]  Finish survey in the Spring –Babi’s thesis work will be published  Want more participants  Need to make it a habit to include the science of information in our future projects; inexpensive to include them 6…2…5…xeb...9

30. [Acknowledgments]  National Science Foundation DBI-0847924  CollectionsWeb RCN  Metadata Research Center /SILS/University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill  Istvan Miko, & Matthew Yoder  Kelly Dew, Tanner Stanfield, Lydia Abernethy, & Bob Blinn  Mary Jo Daines (CREATE)  Randy Sargent (NASA-Ames)  Steve Denning (NCSU)  GigaPan Community  http://tinyurl.com/625xeb9  http://www.gigapan.org/profiles/23796/ NC STATE UNIVERSITY