The NBII’s Digital Image
Library – Aggregating diverse images means
QC and standards
TDWG, October 24 th 2008
Annette Olson, PhD
Biodiversity Scientist,
United States Geological Survey

Media, multimedia, and audiovisual all have connotations that don’t completely overlap with this definition above.

NBII
www.nbii.gov

• An in-house library in 2002.
•
Went online in 2004, with 200 images. All public domain.
• 2004 - partners saw it as a platform to serve, showcase and store their images. Two partners began putting their images in. Copyrighted, but allowing nonprofit use.
• In 2005 had 1000 images in, offered 100,000 images.
Broad mission – to serve diverse, quality-controlled biological images.

• Users – natural resource managers, researchers, and decision-makers.
• Subject scope is defined by what partners deem useful (resource managers = species and ecology)
• Public Domain, or Copyrighted with statement or C.
Commons license allowing most nonprofit uses.
(no fully copyrighted images allowed)
• Serve as a repository, but also be a public gateway to other credible biological image galleries.

http://images.nbii.gov

Amerafrican House Gecko
( Hemidactylus mabouia ) - whole body dorsal view. ©2004 Yuri Huta/Finding
Species
Rufous-collared sparrow nest
( Zonotrichia capensis ),
© 2005 Guyra
Paraguay
Jaguar Track in
Pantanal, Andrea
Grosse and John
Mosesso
Giant armadillo (Priodontes maximus),
© 2005 Guyra Paraguay
Japanese stilt grass ( Microstegium vimineum) invasion, © 2004
Elizabeth A. Sellers.
John J. Mosesso,
Fish ladder

Each image is dynamically linked to metadata.
Required:
Photographer,
Description
Keywords,
Cataloger
Copyright
Scientific and common names, when organism shown. Based on ITIS.
Strongly encouraged.
date geographic location physical description,

PRE-SET METADATA WILL CREATE METADATA
NatureServe
Discover
Life
ReGAP
Morphbank
FRAMES
US FWS
USGS
Projects
Finding
Species
Smithsonian
Dept. Botany
NPN
Nature
Photographer
Indiv. Biologist
USGS Personnel
USGS Projects
Hobby
Photographer
WDIN
NBII
Personnel
SAIN DIL
+ STANDARDS
+ QC
Portlets, RSS DISCOVER LIFE GBIF EoL GAPServe

Andrea Grosse, Wasp Nest in
Gallery Forest, Paraguay
Original images
Mention in metadata
Automatic tools, link checks,…
Feedback mechanisms
Embedding metadata
Signed statement of authenticity and ownership – images on sets
Image resizing tool
Guiding documents
Metadata templates
QA/QC procedures
Devoting staff to screening, tracking

• Quality
• Digital editing (restrictions, original, info in metadata)
• Artificial settings (info in metadata)
• Species identification (feedback)
• Metadata – burden of creation
• (progress being made here - extraction EXIF info, pattern searches…, automatic validation tools)
• Change in the resource over time
• Broken links (auto validation tools)
• Name changes (auto validation tools)
• Technical aspects of linking
• Copyright/privacy/publicity - global
• Standards – or lack of…

• Watermarks – not lost, hard to alter
• Limited in information,
• Info changes
• Watermarks can potentially cover information useful for later research
• Embedding metadata via Adobe
XMP, EXIF, JPEG2000…– can be stripped.
• GUIDS (LSIDs) ….. Do not give information immediately, but resolvable

• No one standard fits – digital resource, original, subject
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Dublin Core – most common among image galleries, doesn’t handle biological info…
Darwin Core – specimen oriented
EML – dataset oriented (potential, but media module still needs to be created)
MODS, PREMIS, DIG35, NISO, “EXIF,” FGDC Biological Profile,
OGC, …
• Encoding Schemes/data values

• Describing relationships
© 2008 Bruce Avera
Hunter, Red-eared
Sliders on
American alligator's back
• Repeatability - Multiple species, subjects, time periods…
© Ronald Hoff,
White-eared
Puffbird
( Nystalus chacuru )
• Pairing of fields – species names with authorities, common names, and taxon levels.
Red-crested and Yellow-billed cardinals ( Parcaria coronata,
Parcaria capitata ),
©2004 Guyra Paraguay

• Different resolutions for display, dissemination
• Rapid Sequences (time lapse)
• Related images of same specimen
– and the habitat where they were trapped.
• Related via other subject matter
(habitat changes at a location over time.)
• Images derived from other images… (montages)
• Illustrations published in a book
(dc:Source)
• Images linked to a dataset, specimen
California broomrape ( Orobanche californica ), © 2007 Ted
Niehaus/Smithsonian

• History – image derived from image that is derived from video…
• Precision of geolocations,
• Methods,
• Language of metadata
• Listing which authority behind a classification
Scientific name source (Catalogue of Life, a published paper, Sibley’s Guide to Birds ….)
Habitat, agriculture (Bailey’s Ecoregions)
• Others…

• Quality control
• Process
• Flat, simple Definitions docs
• XML

Ruby-crowned Kinglet (Regulus calendula) © 2006 Charles H. Warren

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Always more images than there will be galleries to serve.
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Mirroring doesn’t hurt -- preservation.

Capacity building.
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Mandate to help serve US Dept. of Interior Images, includes long-term preservation.
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Add value with controlled vocabularies, quality control, standards, and interoperability.
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Treat the images as biological records.

• Global library – learning global copyright law.
• Tied to “Publication.” If disseminating online – publishing. giving presentations for dissemination on a website can be considered a form of publication. For us, probably fair use, but….
• Images travel!
• Downloaded from websites
• Can be selected from PDFs
• Presentations – slides can be copied

1. Right to Privacy – name or even just image not used without permission, in some cases even if taken in a public space.
2. Right to not have their images/face used for any commercial use/publicity without their permission. Even if taken in public space and public domain.
Signed waivers, or statements in prominent places online.
Facial recognition software is changing this environment. It’s not just about names. Especially for kids!!
Photos by John J. Mosesso,
Bird Banding