Geolocation is the process and technique of pinpointing the geographical location of something using digital information. Most of the National Shell Museum collection lots* have good geographical location (we know where they came from), but translating all that information into digital references is a laborious and time-consuming activity. Thanks to the Thematic Collections Network project “Mobilizing Millions of Mollusks of the Eastern Seaboard” funded by the National Science Foundation, and through the work of grant-funded collection assistants Haley Kraczek and Chris Whitt, the Museum has been able to geolocate about *23,373* collection lots, all from the east and Gulf coasts of the US.
The map above, where yellow, orange, and red dots symbolize geolocated localities for National Shell Museum collection lots, was generated by the data aggregator Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), drawing from data in the Museum's digital collection catalog.
*A lot is defined as a group of collection specimens of the same species, obtained at a single collecting event.
#naturalhistorycollection #collectiondigitization #molluskscollection #nationalsciencefoundation #easternseaboard #geolocation
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