Uses of online specimen images

[Christine Hine]

I've previously mailed Taxacom for help in research I'm doing on the
development of new information and communication infrastructures in
science, using systematics as a case study of a discipline that has made
some inventive uses of these technologies in recent years. I do this
research as a sociologist of science, although way, way back in the
mists of time I did an undergraduate botany degree. I'm hoping that some
of you might volunteer to help me in the next stage of this research,
focusing on the use of online resources, and particularly specimen
images.

I'd be really grateful to hear from anyone who has made use of online
specimen images in their research work, and would be willing to spend a
little time reflecting on how useful they were, and how they might have
added to or changed your previous ways of working. Can you look at a
broader range of material than before by using online images, or do you
still tend to end up requesting loans and making visits? How do you
manage side by side comparisons between digital images and real
specimens? Has your working environment changed: do you work within the
collection, or in front of the computer - or does your working
environment combine the two? What is the experience of collection
managers - has putting images online increased or decreased demand on
the original collection? I'm interested in general reflections but I'd
also like to hear about any particular instances where an online image
was either really helpful, or failed to do the task asked of it.

Please feel free to email me off list, and as I've done before, I'll
post back a summary of the outcomes to the list later.

Best wishes,

Christine


Christine Hine
Department of Sociology
University of Surrey
Guildford, Surrey, GU2 7XH, UK
c.hine at surrey.ac.uk
http://www.soc.surrey.ac.uk/christine_hine.htm