i Collections : introduction Gordon Paterson Chair, i Collections

i Collections: British and Irish Lepidoptera Project Digitising British Isles Lepidoptera collection ~500,000 specimens, 5,000 drawers Re-curation Specimen imaging Complete label information Georeferencing Data available through the KE EMu collections data system

i Collections: WHY BRITISH AND IRISH LEPIDOPTERA? 1) Needed a coherent collection which would provide sufficient numbers of specimens to develop, test and establish suitable mass digitisation pipelines. 2) Needed to be of sufficient size to make an impact and to deliver a large volume of data. 3) Needed to be scientific and culturally coherent and credible ­ our entire British and Irish collections are of interest to scientists, conservationists and the general public. 4) Data produced would address wider scientific and societal issues 5) A collections management perspective ­ what do we have? How many? And where are the gaps? 6. There are external sources of information on UK leps (from surveys) so we can use it as a model system to study the utility of collections for macroecological studies. 7. This may act as a useful pilot project for a global collaboration - Macro Leps are one of the few 'large' invert groups where it may be possible to do the whole world.

i Collections: Building the pipeline Preparation Specimens and labels are put in individual trays Imaging Canon DSRL and macro lens Rehousing New drawers Databasing Rapid Data Entry Application Georeferencing

British & Irish Collections

i Collections: The Digitising Team Flavia Johanna Elisa Peter Lyndsey Sara Peter

i Collections: The Pipeline in action

Preparation for imaging

Imaging station

Data capture

i Collections: Progress Record statusCount Completed63109 Need scrutiny678 Referred to admin801

i Collections: British & Irish Lepidoptera Project 4-6 people over 3 years Small tasks Team work Average imaging rate 163 specimen/day*person Average time for preparation, imaging and databasing is approx 3 min >£1/specimen Less then 0.1% of damaged specimens

What next? 1)Establish consistent taxonomy within the data capture module 2)Georeferencing 3)KE EMu interface 4)Lots more digitising…!

i Collections Team Chair: Gordon Paterson; Collections management: Geoff Martin, Martin Honey, Blanca Huertas, Theresa Howard, Rob Huxley QA/QC KE EMu: Darrell Siebert; Workflows: Vladimir Blagoderov, Steve Cafferty; Database/interfaces: Adrian Hine, Chris Sleep, Mike Sadka; Senior users: Steve Brooks, Ian Kitching; Digitisation Team: Peter Wing, Elisa Cane, Flavia Toloni, Joanna Durant, Sara Albuquerque, Lyndsey Douglas, Gerardo Mazzetta; Georeferencing/GIS: Malcolm Penn; Administration: Victoria Carter.