This iNaturalist project was created for 2021 Special Libraries Association (SLA) Conference attendees to share their observations from wherever they are. These observations will be featured in the on-demand session "Learning data 'naturally’: engaging communities in the scientific process with iNaturalist" presented by Megan Carlton and Jo Klein from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
Submit observations of plants, animals, fungi, and bugs to this project using your smartphone or web browser. For help getting started with iNaturalist, go to https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/getting+started.
SLA 2021 session description: Public participation in scientific research through citizen science is gaining popularity across the world. Through data collection, citizen scientists contribute to the creation of open and research-grade data and build data literacy skills. Academic librarians are often uniquely positioned to promote citizen science projects both in the classroom and among community advocates, connecting researchers with life-long learners for the benefit of open science.
During the on-demand session and throughout the conference, participants and attendees will ‘naturally’ engage with the process of science and learn data literacy skills such as data collection and sharing, by contributing to this dataset. Participants in the session will also be encouraged to pose questions, analyze data, draw conclusions, and communicate findings by exploring the data collected by conference attendees from around the world.