DigiVol is an online citizen science project which allows people all over the world to participate in unlocking biodiversity data from a wide range of historic and contemporary museum, herbaria and research collections. Different types of data resources include: museum and herbarium collection labels; the field notebooks of explorers, ecologists and surveyors; hard copy field data sheets; camera trap images; and more. Many people find the digitisation process to be fun, interesting and educational. Have a go and join an expedition today!
Data transcribed in DigiVol has many uses, including:
* understanding the relationships between species (important in determining potential agricultural pests or potential medical applications);
* the distribution of species (for understanding how best to conserve individual species or ecosystems);
* identification of species from morphological or genetic characters (for example being able to identify birds involved in aircraft incidents).
By helping us capture this information into digital form you are helping scientists and planners better understand, utilise, manage and conserve our precious biodiversity.
This data, once captured, becomes available through a broad range of mechanisms that make it accessible to the scientific and broader communities. These mechanisms include websites such as :
* Individual institutions collections and associated databases
* The Atlas of Living Australia
* The Global Biodiversity Information Facility