International Biodiversity Projects and Natural History Museums: Current state and perspectives Presentation Nov 2009 Brussels, premises of Leibniz Gemeinschaft. Though somewhat outdated, most of the issues and projects are still valid

1. Monitoring and
Securing Biodiversity
November 09, 2011, Brussels
International Biodiversity Projects and
Natural History Museums:
Current state and perspectives
Klaus Riede
Zoological Research Museum Alexander
Koenig

2. Monitoring and
Securing Biodiversity
November 09, 2011, Brussels
Who we are
• Zoological Research Museum
Alexander Koenig,
founded as a private research and exhibition institute by
Alexander Koenig (1858-1940), is one of the major
natural history research museums in the Federal Republic
of Germany. As a member of the Leibniz-Gemeinschaft
(WGL) the ZFMK is jointly funded by the state of
Northrhine-Westphalia, the other states of Germany and
the federal government.
• Scientific collections:
an estimated 350,000 specimens of vertebrates
(GBIF-D Vertebrate node)
several million specimens of insects
GBIF provider through BIODAT and SYSTAX

3. Monitoring and
Securing Biodiversity
November 09, 2011, Brussels
9 July 1998 Volume
394 Issue no 6689
Currently considered
as a hybrid between
Diphyllodes
magnificus and
Cicinnurus regius
Magnificent x King
Bird of Paradise
ZMA 782

4. Monitoring and
Securing Biodiversity
November 09, 2011, Brussels
Deutsche Orthopteren Sammlungen - www.dorsa.de
Countries of origin of Orthoptera type material
deposited in German museums

5. Monitoring and
Securing Biodiversity
November 09, 2011, Brussels
GBIF –the Global Biodiversity InformationGBIF –the Global Biodiversity Information
Facility-Facility- was established to redress the
inequality of data distribution
Developing WorldDeveloping World
BiodiversityBiodiversity
BiodiversityBiodiversity
DataData
Developed WorldDeveloped World

6. Monitoring and
Securing Biodiversity
November 09, 2011, Brussels
What is our content
• High quality type photographs:
Orthoptera types in German museums
(DORSA: Digital Orthoptera Specimen Access)
Vertebrate types: appr. 20,000 pics (TIFF/jpg(
• Sounds appr. 5,000 (wav)
• Fieldbooks and field photographs (observations)
e.g. Verkest Archive: 125,000 slides,
60,000 digitized/annotated
José Verkest (1917-2005),Colonel of the Cologne section of the Belgian army in
Germany
• Coming up:
3D data (microCT, sceleton scans)

7. Monitoring and
Securing Biodiversity
November 09, 2011, Brussels
Multimedia objects
from the natural
history domain are
still dramatically
underrepre-sented in
EUROPEANA!

8. Monitoring and
Securing Biodiversity
November 09, 2011, Brussels

9. Monitoring and
Securing Biodiversity
November 09, 2011, Brussels
Opening up the European Natural
History Heritage for EUROPEANA
OpenUp!

10. Monitoring and
Securing Biodiversity
November 09, 2011, Brussels
The OpenUp! Consortium
Museum of Natural History

11. Monitoring and
Securing Biodiversity
November 09, 2011, Brussels
Europeana Output (mock-up)

12. Monitoring and
Securing Biodiversity
November 09, 2011, Brussels
EDIT FP6 Network of ExcellencePartnership

13. Monitoring and
Securing Biodiversity
November 09, 2011, Brussels
EDIT Geo-Platform: mapViewer
=> Pere Roca Ristol & al.: EDIT mapViewer: a
Geographic Web Application for Taxonomists

14. Monitoring and
Securing Biodiversity
November 09, 2011, Brussels
EDIT goes CETAF:
Consortium of European Taxonomic
Facilities

15. Monitoring and
Securing Biodiversity
November 09, 2011, Brussels
EDIT goes CETAF:
Consortium of European Taxonomic
Facilities: Secretariat to be installed in
Brussels Museum

16. Monitoring and
Securing Biodiversity
November 09, 2011, Brussels
CETAF Secretariat Workplan –
continuation of EDIT activities
• Information Science and Technology Commission
• European Collection Policy Board
• Distributed European School of Taxonomy
• EJT e-Journal for Taxonomy
• Scratchpads
• European Consortium for the Barcode of Life
• All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory+Monitoring
• Digital libraries – BHL Europe, Open Up!, etc.)

17. Monitoring and
Securing Biodiversity
November 09, 2011, Brussels
LifeWatch

18. Monitoring and
Securing Biodiversity
November 09, 2011, Brussels
Biodiversity projects and
Natural History Museums
Biodiv
&
NHMs
International Union for
Conservation of Nature