About the Digitization Knowledge Base

The Digitization Knowledge Base, a project of Integrated Digitized Biocollections (iDigBio), is a central hub for discovering resources related to the digitization of biodiversity collections. We serve a wide spectrum of users, from museum professionals and researchers to those engaged in participatory science. Our mission is to enhance the visibility of these valuable resources and make it easier to identify and fill gaps in community documentation.

Our Story

For years, iDigBio has supported the biodiversity digitization community by curating resources on the iDigBio Wiki. While these pages have been an important reference for collection professionals, the community found that searching for and discovering new materials on the wiki could be cumbersome. The Digitization Knowledge Base was born from this feedback. It represents the next evolution in iDigBio's commitment to compiling and sharing community knowledge, offering a powerful and intuitive experience for all users.

Our Approach

Our approach is to serve as a central hub that points to the wealth of resources already created by the digitization community, rather than hosting original content directly. We enrich these resources with detailed descriptions and structured metadata to power a robust search experience, allowing users to find materials through both faceted and full-text searches. This focus on metadata enhancement makes discovery faster and more intuitive. Furthermore, we foster a collaborative environment by enabling community discussion around each resource through a commenting system, helping to collectively advance our shared expertise.

Roadmap

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Maintainers

Fritz Pichardo Marcano

iDigBio's Digitization Resources Manager

Fritz leads the development and management of iDigBio's Knowledge Base. He tracks emerging methods and technologies in the field, identifies gaps in existing resources, and works on addressing these gaps by developing new protocols and guides. He also instructs digitization courses in Spanish for the Digitization Academy.

He has worked with natural history collections since his undergraduate studies at Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo. During his graduate work at Florida State University, he managed the herbarium collection and focused on geospatial methods for biodiversity data. His research background includes work on tropical plant phylogenetics at Memorial University of Newfoundland. Fritz is particularly interested in data management standards and how geospatial analysis can improve our understanding of biodiversity patterns.