BiCIKL is certainly a project for an integrated library, but there’s no innovative tool you can use without appropriate training on that.  

That’s why BiCIKL, eBioDiv and the Arcadia Fund have co-funded the development of tools and learning module provided by Plazi, which is part of the Mobilise COST Action – Mobilising Data, Policies and Experts in Scientific Collections. 

The Suisse-based scientific institution, a valuable BiCIKL partner, provided the Training School (TS) “Biodiversity and Digital Media: linking material citations in publications to specimens” held online on the 27th and 28th of February 2023, as a part of a series of training courses in which Plazi expects to teach interested parties how to use data preparation tools to become a data liberator.    

This hands-on and interactive training initiative gave the opportunity to 20 participants, coming from 11 countries and representing 14 institutions of natural history research, to get informed and exercised on the accessibility and reuse of taxonomic data using digital platforms and repositories. 

The main theoretical topics addressed were the concept of findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable data (FAIR) and Plazi workflow, the repositories for taxonomic data, and an outlook on how to convert data from missing publications aiming a future of publishing according to FAIR data requirements. The practical activities were focused on the learning and use of the eBioDiv Matching Service, with participants linking specimens in Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) to materials citations extracted from scholarly publications and made available through Plazi's TreatmentBank.