Workshop Invite: We invite you to bring your extensive knowledge of bats and historic and present-day bat collectors to a special two-hour workshop designed to enable building a master list of the world’s bat collectors. We will explore the digitally accessible bat specimen records in the Families Hipposideridae and Rhinolophidae and actively link these to the people who collected and/or identified them. This will be a state of the art, new approach in which you will also receive brief training on the use of ORCID, Wikidata, and a new online resource called Bionomia. No technical skills are required, just your unique, insider knowledge of chiropterologists and bat collections across the world. You will be helping to create links in the biodiversity knowledge network that will aid in the uncovering of what is known, but currently hidden, and enable future digitization efforts. Through your work and Bionomia, you may also discover the research in which your specimens may have played a part, and just where your specimens are now and who else has looked at them. You’ll be participating in a pilot run for this new kind of community data enhancement campaign helping us discover the potential for doing this in the future for other taxa (e.g., Revealing the Who in Bird Collecting).

1. The “Who” in Collections
Revealing the Network of Collectors and Determiners
of Bat Specimens
David P. Shorthouse, Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada, Ottawa
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7618-5230
Deborah Paul, Species File Group, Tallahassee, Florida
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2639-7520
Nancy Simmons, American Museum of Natural History, New York
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8807-7499

2. Tigga Kingston (US)
Jodi Sedlock (US)
Brock Fenton (CA)
Victor Van Cakenberghe (BE)
Paul Bates (GB)
Nancy Simmons (US)
Paul W. Webala (KE)
Cody Thompson (US)
Roberto Portela Miguez (GB)
Gabor Csorba (HU)
Kendra Phelps (US)
Jocelyn Colella (US)
Emma Teeling (IE)
Adam Ferguson (US)
Erik Verheyen (BE)
Cristiane Bastos Silveira (PT)
DeeAnn Reeder (US)
Bruce Patterson (US)
Gary Kwiecinski (US)
Muhammad Idnan (PK)
Shriranjani Iyer(IN)
Kendra Phelps (US)
Ashok Manekar (IN)
Nursel Asan (TR)
Aliaksei Shpak (BY)
Tariq Ahmed Shah (IN)
Thangsuanlian Naulak (IN)
Leigh Richards (ZA)
Shariful Islam (BD)
Shahzad Ali (PK)
Rajesh Puttaswamaiah (IN)
Yafhed Martínez (MX)
Anna Nele Herdina (AT)
Ara Monadjem (SZ)
Siti Rabiatul Fajri (ID)
Mohammed Lamine Bendjeddou (RO)
Dau Lal Bohra (IN)
Jayaraj Vijaya Kumaran (MY)
Gabriela Rios-Sotelo (US)
Muhammad Muhajir Hasibuan (ID)
Sophie Gryseels (BE)
Clare Mateke (ZM)
Tamara Szentivanyi (US)
Deb Paul (US)
David Shorthouse (CA)
Aja Sherman (US)
Trevor Dalton (US)
Erica Krimmel (US)
Katie Pearson (US)
James Pagé (CA)
Muhammad Aminuddin Baqi
bin Hasrizal Fuad (MY)
Azniza Mahyudin (MY)
Burton Lim (CA)
Bob Timm (US)
Kuenzeng Dorji (BT)
Facilitators
Siobhan Leachman (NZ)
Wikipedian

3. This RAPID award will produce and deliver
a georeferenced, vetted and consolidated
data product for horseshoe bats and
related species to facilitate understanding
of the sources, distribution, and spread of
SARS-CoV-2 and related viruses, a timely
response to the ongoing global pandemic
caused by SARS-CoV-2 and an important
contribution to the global effort to
consolidate and provide quality data that
are relevant to understanding emergent
and other properties the current
pandemic. This RAPID award is made by
the Division of Biological Infrastructure
(DBI) using funds from the Coronavirus Aid,
Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fB1YtQgGSII
(1.5 hr)

6. Distributed Systems of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo)

7. Key Integrators in the Biological Sciences
Time Place Scientific Names

8. People…
…we scatter breadcrumbs that corroborate time, place, and scientific names

9. Our Immediate Goal
Link digitally available bat specimen data to their collectors & determiners
• Reveal errors or inconsistencies in transcription
• Dates, georeferencing, determinations
• Enhance the RAPID data product
• Dynamic list of experts, living &/or deceased
But…
We do not know all the bat collectors & determiners

10. Why Link People to Biodiversity Data?
Credit & recognition
History of science
Facilitate new discoveries
Gateway to linking other items (eg
field notes, publications, sequences)
Detect errors or fill gaps
Engage with new local and
international audiences (eg
genealogists)

12. But what is a Person in this context?
A human with an open, verifiable, and shared digital identifier.
eg Michael Carleton https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2401-0564
What is an Agent String in this context?
A string of characters purported to represent a person as might be
present on or transcribed from a specimen label but without a link to a
digital identifier.
eg “M. Carleton”

13. Pteropodidae J. E. Gray, 1821
Rhinopomatidae Bonaparte, 1838
Craseonycteridae Hill, 1974
Megadermatidae H. Allen, 1864
Rhinonycteridae J. E. Gray, 1866
Hipposideridae Lydekker, 1891
Rhinolophidae J. E. Gray, 1825
Nycteridae Van der Hoeven, 1855
Emballonuridae Gervais in de Castelnau, 1855
Myzopodidae Thomas, 1904
Mystacinidae Dobson, 1875
Thyropteridae Miller, 1907
Furipteridae J. E. Gray, 1866
Noctilionidae J. E. Gray, 1821
Mormoopidae Saussure, 1860
Phyllostomidae J. E. Gray, 1825
Natalidae J. E. Gray, 1825
Molossidae Gervais in de Castelnau, 1855
Miniopteridae Dobson, 1875
Cistugidae Lack et al., 2010
Vespertilionidae J. E. Gray, 1821
40,152
40,628
4,513
37
2,325
9,923
38,213
93
85
855
461
8,245
30,564
95,716
337,350
6,862
107,473
27,609
21
285,527
2,930 agent strings of
collectors & determiners

14. Part of Our Task is to Churn…
STRINGS => THINGS
Agent String => Person
“M. Carleton” => https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2401-0564
Semantic Web-ready URI

15. GBIF Agent Strings
Parsed from raw specimen data

16. Known People
Clean, curated list with identifiers

17. Identifier Systems for People
Open, metadata can be created, edited, or removed
Has open tools and modern services
Centralized, financially and technically sustainable
Machine-readable & actionable
Reusable for widely disparate purposes

19. Global Biodiversity Information Facility
https://gbif.org

20. ORCID provides a persistent digital identifier (an ORCID iD) that you
own and control, and that distinguishes you from every other
researcher.
https://orcid.org

21. Aliases, birth & death dates, affiliations, links to other
identifiers, employment history, country of citizenship, field of
work, education, …
…and each statement can point to evidence
https://www.wikidata.org

22. Near-term Goals & Other Possible Outcomes
Roll the links between person & specimen into
collections
Improve tools & services as we make linkages
Facilitate how stories are told with visualizations

23. https://bionomia.net

28. https://bionomia.net/taxon/Rhinolophidae

29. https://bionomia.net/taxon/Hipposideridae

30. Task #1
Visit https://orcid.org and create a profile if you don’t already have one
Make public:
• “Also known as” names
• Your employment & education
• Your country
• Your keywords, websites, other IDs
• Your publications

31. Task #2
Login to Bionomia, https://bionomia.net/ with your ORCID credentials
& claim your specimen records

33. Optional Task #1 – Breakout Room “Strings”
Add your knowledge about the unknown “Agent Strings”
Add web site URLs to “Notes”
where possible
Indicate if living or deceased
Add anything that might help
Put your initials in brackets

34. Optional Task #2 – Breakout Room “Things”
Claim your specimen records & attribute some to known people
Add your name to the
“Claimant” column to tell
others here
Share any interesting notes,
tidbits in the agenda

35. Attributing Specimens
Known People
example: Glover Morrill Allen
https://bionomia.net/Q1532266

36. Attributing Specimens
Known People
example: Glover Morrill Allen
https://bionomia.net/Q1532266

37. Done attributing? Make
public, refresh stats

38. Attributing specimens
Known people
example: Jodi Sedlock
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2767-5932

39. Let’s get started (two paths)
1. Working list of “Agents” and People
2. See Known People tab
3. Claimant: Claim some to work on in Bionomia
4. Click Bionomia Helping URL to start claiming

40. Let’s get started (two paths)
1. Working list of “Agents” and People
2. See GBIF Agent Strings tab
3. Notes column: add information, your initials in (), add sources if possible

41. Schedule
11:15 AM – 3:00 PM EST
Working on your own or in breakout rooms
2:00 PM – 2:30 PM EST
Join Siobhan Leachman in main Zoom room to learn Wikidata
3:00 PM – 4:00 PM EST
Report back, illustration of what we accomplished, wrap-up, share
insights, discuss next steps