[Taxacom] Digitizing Science Collections

[Bob Mesibov]

Excellent discussion so far, can't add much to what's already been said so well.

With some qualifications and warnings, I recently put online 10000+ specimen records for native Australian millipedes:

http://www.polydesmida.info/millipedesofaustralia/localities.html

I'm confident there are errors in these, but rather than warn users to beware, I've just given the record source in the CSV, including the identifier's name, and spelled out the following:

"The CSV and KML files are made available here with a Creative Commons license (attribution + non-commercial, by-nc). You are welcome to use or copy the locality records for non-commercial purposes. Please cite the Millipedes of Australia URL in your work, together with the date you accessed the information. Note that each CSV and KML file has the date of the most recent compilation in the filename, as in 'agathodesmus_30-March-2012.csv'. Please make sure you cite this date when re-using the records.

If you notice any errors or other problems in the records, please let me know by email (mesibov (at) southcom (dot) com (dot) au). The CSV files have been generated from databases which contain more information than has been included here."

The compilation date is a reminder that the data set is a work in progress. I've just found another error, this time in the publication I used as a source. The author either misquoted the locality label or relied on an inaccurate one. I'll fix the data shortly and re-date the CSV and KML files.
-- 
Dr Robert Mesibov
Honorary Research Associate
Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery
Home contact: PO Box 101, Penguin, Tasmania, Australia 7316
Ph: (03) 64371195; 61 3 64371195
Webpage: http://www.qvmag.tas.gov.au/?articleID=570