DigiVol:Hub of activity

  • Author(s)
    Leonie Prater
  • Category
    Museullaneous
  • Published
    18 December 2013
  • Read time
    2 minutes

Productivity and interesting conversation between volunteers and colleagues go hand in hand in the DigiVol lab.

DigiVol has had another productive year digitising some of the Australian Museum’s Collections. The 70 regular volunteers who generally commit one day per week has been critical to the success of DigiVol and their efforts have provided a solid business case to secure funding for this project until September, 2014.

The following statistics highlight DigiVol’s achievements during 2013...

Digitisation and transcription of Collection specimens:

  • 23,000 Malacology specimens, including many micro shells which has required x ray vision to see them let alone count them.
  • 6,200 Entomology specimens, including mosquitoes, robber flies and foreign butterflies. The butterflies, in particular were not for the feint hearted due to their brittleness, fragile labels and a high degree of handling difficulty.
  • 3,200 Marine Invertebrates specimens, including Mel Ward’s substantial crab collection.

Digitisation and transcription of Archival Records:

  • 31,000 Archival records single pages of field diaries and notebooks, including M.S.R Sharland, Edgar Waite, W H Hargraves, Ian Thornton, AM McCullough, and Anthony Forge. This year, the post processing of images for Archival records has become an integral of DigiVol’s work.
  • DigiVol and virtual volunteers have spent many hours transcribing and validating the fascinating Waite diaries. A current interesting job request involves the cleaning, scanning and databasing of Bird slides and negatives.