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Journal article
Putting U.S. mollusk collections on the map: collaborative digitization and innovation
The Nautilus (Philadelphia), v 139(3), pp 91-103
31 Oct 2025
Abstract
Among biocollections, mollusks are a particularly powerful resource for a wide range of studies, including biogeography, conservation, ecology, environmental monitoring, evolutionary biology, and systematics. U.S. mollusk collections are housed in stand-alone natural history museums, at universities, and in a variety of governmental and non-governmental institutions. Differing in their histories, specializations, and uses, they share common needs for long-term development, and collectively contribute to biodiversity knowledge at regional, national, and global scales. Commitment by dedicated staff, collectors, and volunteers, institutional investments, philanthropy, and governmental funding have built and maintained these collections and their support infrastructure. Efforts by the North American malacological collection community since the early 1970s led to coordination in database design but left the data isolated in individual institutions. Collection digitization developed through a combination of individual/institutional initiatives and federally supported projects funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). Advances in digital technology enabled the shift toward nationally and globally unified collections. Networking and collaboration were greatly accelerated by NSF’s Advancing Digitization of Biodiversity Collections (ADBC) program, which created a central coordinating organization (iDigBio) and funded Thematic Collections Network (TCN) projects. One such TCN was developed to mobilize nearly 90% of the known U.S. museum-collections-based data of the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf coasts (Mobilizing Millions of Marine Mollusks of the Eastern Seaboard—ESB). The project, involving 16 museum collections (plus the Smithsonian Institution as federal partner), combines data from approximately 4.5 million specimens collected from the ESB region and makes them available to the TCN portal InvertEBase and other aggregators such as iDigBio and GBIF. In addition to fostering community and expanding the corpus of available digitized mollusk records through new data entry and georeferencing (GEOLocate, CoGe) and standardizing taxonomy, the project drove key innovations for the invertebrate collections community. For instance, it worked with the Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) group to create a new Darwin Core standard term, “Vitality”, expanded GEOLocate to support complex geospatial types, integrated global elevation and bathymetric datasets directly into georeferencing workflow, and developed various education and outreach public outreach products. Synthesizing from the 15 following articles with individual histories of ESB-participating mollusk collections, several topics are discussed—such as what defines a “good” mollusk collection in the digital age and the importance of federal support for this national resource.
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Details
- Title
- Putting U.S. mollusk collections on the map: collaborative digitization and innovation
- Creators
- Rudiger Bieler - Field Museum of Natural HistoryArthur E. Bogan - North Carolina State Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh, NC, United StatesMaria M. Criales - University of MiamiGregory P. Dietl - Cornell UniversityThomas F. Duda - University of MichiganCorinne E. Fuchs - Fish and Wildlife Research Institute, St. Petersburg, FL, United StatesGonzalo Giribet - Harvard UniversityJessica A. Goodheart - American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY, United StatesJose H. Leal - Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum & AquariumTaehwan Lee - Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum & AquariumPaula M. Mikkelsen - Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum & AquariumTimothy A. Pearce - Carnegie Museum of Natural HistoryKatelin Pearson - University of KansasTina Petvvay - Houston Museum of Natural ScienceNelson Rios - Yale Peabody MuseumGary Rosenberg - Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, United StatesElizabeth K. Shea - Delaware Museum of Nature and SciencePetra Sierwald - Delaware Museum of Nature and ScienceJohn Slapcinsky - University of FloridaJamie M. Smith - University of FloridaJann E. Vendetti - Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
- Publication Details
- The Nautilus (Philadelphia), v 139(3), pp 91-103
- Number of pages
- 13
- Grant note
- DBI-2001510 / NCSM FWRI Field Museum (http://data.elsevier.com/vocabulary/SciValFunders/100009304) DBI-2001507 / National Science Foundation (http://data.elsevier.com/vocabulary/SciValFunders/100000001) Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University (http://data.elsevier.com/vocabulary/SciValFunders/100005319) National Science Foundation (http://data.elsevier.com/vocabulary/SciValFunders/100000001) DBI-2001515 / HBOM DBI-2101814 / NHMLA DBI-2001523; DBI-2001536; DBI-2001528; DBI-2001546; DBI-2001570 / Ulman Foundation (http://data.elsevier.com/vocabulary/SciValFunders/100025815) DBI-2001600 / Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University (http://data.elsevier.com/vocabulary/SciValFunders/100005319)
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Biodiversity, Earth, and Environmental Science (BEES); Malacology
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-105028275811
- Other Identifier
- 991022158466504721