T288 Advancing the Digitization of Paleontology and Geoscience Collections: Projects, Programs, and Practices I

Wednesday, 22 October 2014
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM
223/224

THE INTERNET OF SAMPLES IN THE EARTH SCIENCES (ISAMPLES)

Paper number: T288-3
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 8:30 AM – 8:45 AM

Authors

Abstract

Most Earth Science disciplines depend on the availability of samples collected above, at, and beneath Earth’s surface, on the moon and in space, or generated in experiments. Scientists from many Earth Science domains and even the US government have expressed the need to enhance access and sharing of scientific samples and collections (EarthCube End-User Domain workshops, http://www.earthcube.org/page/end-user-workshops; OSTP Memo, March 2014). The Internet of Samples in the Earth Sciences (iSamplES) is an initiative to address this demand. iSamplES aims to advance the use of innovative cyberinfrastructure (CI) to connect physical samples and sample collections across the Earth Sciences with digital data infrastructures to ensure and augment their accessibility for future analyses. Recently funded as an EarthCube Research Coordination Network by the US NSF, iSamplES strives to build, grow, and foster a new community of practice, in which domain scientists, curators of sample repositories and collections, museums, computer and information scientists, software developers and engineers, and technology innovators engage in and collaborate on defining, articulating, and addressing the needs and challenges of digital sample and collection management as a critical CI component.

A primary goal of iSamplES is to define community-endorsed best practices and standards for the registration, description, identification, and citation of physical specimens, building on, aligning, and integrating a range of disparate and so far poorly coordinated activities related to the digital management of both geological and biological samples, including the International Geo Sample Number (IGSN) and its implementing organization, IGSN e.V., the Biocode Commons Identifiers (BCID), Darwin Core, the System for Earth Sample Registration (SESAR), and existing and emerging software tools for collection management such as Specify and the Digital Environment for Sample Curation (DESC). iSamplES activities will include a stakeholder alignment process with surveys, in-person workshops, and outreach events, the creation of the isamplES knowledge hub (semantic wiki) and a registry of collections (as part of EarthCube’s CINERGI), and an early career engagement effort.

An iSamplES Town Hall will be held at the GSA meeting.