Out of the Box: Sharing strategies for accessing natural history collections

Paul Flemons

Speaker

Paul joined the Museum in 1998, establishing the Museum’s spatial analysis capacity and initially managing the GIS facilities and modelling the spatial distribution of biodiversity. As part of an Australian Museum team he provided input to the Forestry assessment process that saw invertebrates being used for the first time in the designing and specification of reserve systems in the eastern forests of NSW. He has been instrumental in building the Museum’s reputation as a world leader in biodiversity informatics. Paul has a particular interest in developing innovative solutions to biodiversity informatics challenges, in particular web based applications for accessing and analysing biodiversity collection data. In recent years he has developed the DigiVol project. which is recognised globally as an innovative best practice volunteer based program for digitising natural history collections. DigiVol forms the basis of the Museums current drive to digitise its collections in an environment of scarce funding.

John La Salle

Speaker

John La Salle, Director of the Atlas of Living Australia, has been involved with the Atlas since its inception and played a key role in its establishment in 2006. John is an internationally recognised insect taxonomist, who served as Director of the Australian National Insect Collection (ANIC) from 2001-2012. He is a leading figure in adopting emerging technologies to accelerate the processes of taxonomy, species discovery and description, and delivery of information from natural history collections. As Director of the Atlas of Living Australia he is helping to unlock the information stored in a huge range of biodiversity databases, and making this information accessible and useable online. This huge, rich data pool is generating new efficiencies and possibilities for research, collection management, natural resource management, policy development, land-use planning, education and outreach. His 30 years of research experience in the systematics and biology of parasitic Hymenoptera has mainly been focused on the systematics, biology, and evolution of parasitic Hymenoptera; their importance to biological control and sustainable agriculture; and their significance in maintaining ecological balance in both natural and agricultural ecosystems.

Sheldon Teares

Speaker

Sheldon Teare (BA Hons, MA) is a specialist Natural Sciences Conservator and currently holds the position of Conservator, Natural Sciences at the Australian Museum. Sheldon trained as an Objects Conservator, gaining a Masters in Cultural Materials Conservation from the University of Melbourne. He has specialized in the Conservation of Natural Science collections for over seven years. Sheldon joined the Conservation department at the Australian museum in 2010. Before joining the Australian Museum team he was a projects Conservator at Museum Victoria. Sheldon studied Classics and Archaeology as an undergraduate gaining knowledge in Archaeozoology and Biological anthropology. This heightened an interest in osteology and working with biological/natural specimens. Sheldon has worked across many large scale projects on Birds of Paradise, Deep sea fluid preserved specimens and whole galleries of historical and modern taxidermy. Sheldon has extensive experience with the treatment of taxidermy specimens, and a particular interest in the Conservation of fluid preserved specimens.Sheldon’s current areas of interest lie in fluid Preservation, historical taxidermy, advocating for improved standards and records within the preparation of specimens, and is passionate in educating Conservators and Collection staff in basic Collection Care of Natural Science collections.

Elycia Wallis

Speaker

Dr Elycia Wallis is the Manager of Online Collections at Museum Victoria in Melbourne. In this role, Elycia works with a team of content specialists and developers to create innovative ways to publish information about the museum’s collections to websites, apps and into exhibition interactives. Dr Wallis holds a PhD in Zoology and a Masters in Knowledge Management. Dr Wallis is also the Project Lead for the Biodiversity Heritage Library in Australia, which is coordinated by a team at Museum Victoria and is run under the auspices of the Atlas of Living Australia.