The Philecology Herbarium holds over 1.4 million scientific specimens in public trust, including vascular plants, mosses, lichens, fungi, slime molds, and algae, from around the world. Like many other natural history collections, BRIT is in the process of making the specimen images and data available in a digital form. But to do that, we need your help in transcribing information from the specimens. BRIT has joined with other natural history collections around the world to participate in an annual Worldwide Engagement for Digitizing Biocollections (WeDigBio) event in a concerted effort to increase the amount of natural history data available to research and the public.
October 12th, 2023: POSTPONED – New date will be announced soon
12:00 PM CT via Zoom: WeDigBio! Tales of a Botanical Odyssey in the Philippines
Join this presentation by Herbarium Director Tiana Rehman as she provides a behind-the-scenes look at the 4th Philippines expedition of the Plant Discovery in the Southern Philippines project, which took place in January 2023. You’ll get a deep dive into the processes and tales of a scientific botanical foray in the Philippines and hear about how this current project fits in to the longer history of the Philecology Herbarium’s involvement in documenting the biodiversity of the Philippines. Expect lots of photographs and stories, and an opportunity for discussions and questions.
Online via zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81563444728 (Meeting ID: 815 6344 4728; Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/ksNnUqePt).
In-Person Watch Party: bring your lunch and join us in the Commons of the BRIT building.
1:00-3:00 pm in the Philecology herbarium of the BRIT Building: All Asia WeDigBio Digitization Blitz!
If you just can’t get enough of your virtual visit to Asia after the presentation, consider signing up for our All Asia WeDigBio Digitization Blitz! A 2-hour session where you’ll learn about herbarium specimens and assist us in typing data in as interpreted from specimens collected in Asia. You’ll play around with Google translate, learn about Latin binomials, and refresh your geographic skills. Prior experience is not necessary, however comfort with computers is important. If you have your own laptop that can connect to the internet, you are encouraged to bring it –laptops will be available for borrowing.
WeDigBio Lite 2020 (April 16-19): Virtual transcription blitzes were attended via Zoom by a total of 38 participants, on April 17th from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and on April 18th from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Participants helped transcribe labels from Texas specimens residing in the BRIT and VDB collections, contributing to the TORCH TCN digitization project.
WeDigBio 2018 (October 17-20): Participants helped to transcribe specimen labels from ferns and lycophyte specimens in the NLU collection at BRIT, as well as Texas material from the BRIT and VDB collections. We had an on-site transcription blitz on Saturday, October 19th from 9:30am to 12:30pm for the general public, and a transcription blitz for workshop attendees of the Annual Texas Master Naturalist Meeting in Rockwall, Texas, on Sunday, October 10th from 10am-12pm.
WeDigBio 2017: Online and in-person transcription events.
WeDigBio 2016: Online and in-person transcription events.
WeDigBio 2015 (October 22-25): During this inaugural worldwide event, BRIT held two on-site transcription blitzes that were attended by more than 30 people, including BRIT volunteers, high school students in the BRIT Green Revolution Program, and members of the public.
Department
Herbarium
Point of Contact
Tiana Rehman
Director of Herbarium & Collections Manager
Phone: (817) 546-1845
Email: trehman@brit.org
WeDigBio with the BRIT Herbarium: an online-only specimen transcription blitz (Thursday, October 15th, 2020)
The Botanical Research Institute of Texas Philecology Herbarium holds 1.4 million scientific specimens in public trust, including vascular plants, mosses, lichens, fungi, slime molds, and algae, from around the world. Like many other natural history collections, BRIT is in the process of making the specimen images and data available in a digital form. But to do that, we need your help in transcribing information from the specimens. BRIT has joined with other natural history collections around the world to participate in a Worldwide Engagement for Digitizing Biocollections (WeDigBio) event in a concerted effort to increase the amount of natural history data available to research and the public.
So we hope you will join us in digitizing BRIT’s specimens as part of this WeDigBio event and our ongoing efforts through the Armchair Botanist program (details at brit.org/armchairbotanist)
What you need: a computer with access to the internet and the ability to read specimen labels from online images describing the who, what, where, when (and sometimes why!) of a scientific collection and then to follow prompts to type that information into separate meaningful fields. If you want to join any online interactive events, you may need a camera and microphone attached to your computer.
When to join us: Any time from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.! Although we will be providing live guidance for this WeDigBio activity through Zoom during this period, we also hold year-round weekly sessions through our #ArmchairBotanist program on NotesfromNature.org (visit www.brit.org/armchairbotanist for more information).
Where to start: Read the BRIT Notes from Nature Guide, or take a self-guided orientation anytime by going directly to Notesfromnature.org and look for the BRIT expeditions under “Plants” (anything with “Flora of Texas and Oklahoma”, “TORCH”, “BRIT”, or “VDB” in the title). Ongoing expeditions are listed at the bottom of this webpage, or you may consider joining our weekly #ArmchairBotanist sessions via Zoom (visit www.brit.org/armchairbotanist for more information).
Zoom meeting: Oct 15, 2020 01:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada):
How do I ask questions? If you are logged in to a free account on notesfromnature.org, then you can use the talk function (it appears at the top of the page) for general questions, or as you reach the last entry page when transcribing a specimen label, you will see a “Done & Talk” button. If you aren’t logged into NotesfromNature.org, then you can email herbarium@brit.org, or social media (https://www.facebook.com/BRITorg; https://twitter.com/BRIT_org).
Thank you for your participation! The time and energy you have put into this effort are furthering science by increasing access to this primary source of scientific data!
Past Events:
WeDigBio Lite 2020 (April 16-19): Virtual transcription blitzes were attended via Zoom by a total of 38 participants, on April 17th from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and on April 18th from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Participants helped transcribe labels from Texas specimens residing in the BRIT and VDB collections, contributing to the TORCH TCN digitization project.
WeDigBio 2018 (October 17-20): Participants helped to transcribe specimen labels from ferns and lycophyte specimens in the NLU collection at BRIT, as well as Texas material from the BRIT and VDB collections. We had an on-site transcription blitz on Saturday, October 19th from 9:30am to 12:30pm for the general public, and a transcription blitz for workshop attendees of the Annual Texas Master Naturalist Meeting in Rockwall, Texas, on Sunday, October 10th from 10am-12pm.
WeDigBio 2017: Online and in-person transcription events.
WeDigBio 2016: Online and in-person transcription events.
WeDigBio 2015 (October 22-25): During this inaugural worldwide event, BRIT held two on-site transcription blitzes that were attended by more than 30 people, including BRIT volunteers, high school students in the BRIT Green Revolution Program, and members of the public.
