Field Museum of Natural History

The Field Museum of Natural History will modify and adapt in-person training courses for staff on the importance of digitization planning, data integrity, preservation, and mobilization to collections data for use in a virtual environment. Information technology staff will work with colleagues from departments throughout the museum to develop data standards that reflect best practices and enable data and metadata to more easily be managed and published. The team also will develop a training module on cultural sensitivity and collections data, as well as the framework for an identification key that various museum staff can modify and use to help audiences identify biological specimens of interest. The overall goal of the project is to create a cohort of Field Museum professionals with new and expanded data management skills and an understanding of the role of collections and their associated data as a shared resource with stewardship across multiple departments.