On this podcast we talk a lot about natural history collections. In fact, a spot (or more) of collections work is pretty much required to describe a new species. But what actually counts as a natural history collection? How many are there in the world? And what happens to all of that juicy data waiting in the stacks to be worked on? Dr. Makenzie Mabry has some of those answers and more. We talk about all of the different types of information that can be associated with specimens, the different resources researchers and non-researchers can use to access it, as well as some of the strengths and challenges to the way we build, use, and share museum data. Resources mentioned in this episode: IDigBio - Integrated Digitized Biocollections, a platform for organizing, storing, and sharing specimen data Symbiota - Platform aimed at helping smaller collections manage and distribute their data GBIF - The Global Biodiversity Information Facility which acts as a network for distributing biodiversity data Bionomia - A platform that links natural history specimens to their contributors Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) - a group that develops data standards for collections in order to help in the sharing of knowledge and information Makenzie’s publications can be found in journals including Plants People Planet, Journal of College Science Teaching, Plant and Cell Physiology, and PhytoKeys. Follow her on twitter: @KenzieMabry Or Instagram: @kenziemabry_phd Makenzie’s website: makenziemabry.weebly.com A transcript of this episode can be found here: Makenzie Mabry - Transcript Check out our website: www.newspeciespodcast.net Be sure to follow New Species on Twitter (@PodcastSpecies) and like the podcast page on Facebook (www.facebook.com/NewSpeciesPodcast) Music in this podcast is "No More (Instrumental)," by HaTom (https://fanlink.to/HaTom) If you have questions or feedback about this podcast, please e-mail us at [email protected] If you would like to support this podcast, please consider doing so at https://www.patreon.com/NewSpeciesPod