Susana García:
I am currently enrolled in an MSc in Information Management and Preservation (Digital)/ (Archives & Records Management) and enjoying a scholarship as Collection Developer in ‘Harvesting Collections for Social and Scientific Benefit: Hidden Stories at the Herbarium of RBGE’ a project funded by a Scottish Crucible 2016 grant. The project involves the partnership of the HATII department at the University of Glasgow, the University of Aberdeen and the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh (RBGE).
I have also a degree in the History of Art and an MSc in Museum Studies, and I hope that my background knowledge in and love for humanities would help enhance new narratives and poetics that connect human disciplines and sensibilities. I am interested in study the new set of skills archivists and knowledge workers would need to acquire for protecting vulnerable and endangered data from volatile political situations, with an especial focus on the digitally created environmental data.
The father of the ‘total archives’ concept, Hugh Taylor, called for a ‘new tribalism’ in which ‘the capacity to access information will equate to “immediate sensory reading of environment” and the documentary of the past’. He saw in non-literate communities a model for achieving a non-fragmentary cultural heritage[1]
Nowadays environmental historians are looking for ways of making history of humankind more inclusive, telling us to pay attention to a holistic, inclusive view. Otherwise what is left is an incomplete and fragmented human history[2].
That fragmented specialization of Western culture and compartmented field of knowledge have been challenged by new technologies of information. Hyperlinks, horizontal production and exchange of information demands a holistic approach to interpret complex and dynamic realities.
Collections are seeking new audiences thought digitisation projects. Herbaria are becoming increasingly digital, and in doing so, the collections of dead plants are becoming databases. This paradigm shift represents both new opportunities but also new challenges.
This blog will record our journey, please join us and contribute to this ongoing dialogue.
[1] Keli Rylance, ‘Counter Point, Archives and the Intangible’, Archivaria, 62, (2006) 103-120
[2] Candace Loewen, ‘From Human Neglect to Planetary Survival: New Approaches to the Appraisal of Environmental Records’, Archivaria 33, (1991-92), 87-103, p.93.
Emily Fendya:
Greetings! I am an MSc student in the HATII department at the University of Glasgow, where I am working towards the degree in Information Management and Preservation. I am eager to engage in the exploration of the RBGE Herbarium collections, to discover hidden narratives therein, and to document and analyze the process of investigation, creation, and final output of new stories using the open source ArcGIS story mapping tool.
In Using Geographical and Taxonomic Metadata to Set Priorities in Specimen Digitization, Walter G. Berendsohn and Peggy Seltmann assert that “(t)he single most important data item besides the taxonomic identification of specimens is the geographic location of the collection event.”[1] I am interested in research into the role of geographical information and metadata within digital preservation practices in the Herbarium, and the impact of this geospatial data on the fields of biodiversity informatics and descriptive taxonomy.
Furthermore, I am interested in the performance of the geospatial context of linked data, and the use of GIS mapping tools for curation of multimedia information for cross-disciplinary use and outreach.
[1] Walter G. Berendsohn and Peggy Seltmann, ‘Using Geographical and Taxonomic Metadata to Set Priorities in Specimen Digitization’, Biodiversity Informatics, 7.2 (2010), p. 121 <https://doi.org/10.17161/bi.v7i2.3988>.
Soph McCormack-Gow:
Hi! I too am an MSc Information Management and Preservation student at the University of Glasgow. My Undergraduate degree was also from the University of Glasgow in Joint Honours Digital Media with Information Management and Theatre Studies.
With the Crucible Project I have a variety of areas I am interested in exploring with the RBGE. Firstly I aim to use my theatrical background to explore different ways to pull narratives from the herbarium’s hidden stories; the collections and collectors which are perhaps unknown or have been lost amongst the more famous collections like Darwin’s own work. Focusing particularly on the lesser known collections such as the fungi and lichens I hope will help to highlight the incredible diversity that can be found in the herbarium.
The second area I am interested in exploring with the RBGE is how we can make existing resources more accessible to the general public. Be that through using API technology to allow users to interact with the digitised collections without needing a knowledge of botanical taxonomy, or finding other ways to make the collection as a whole more accessible.