Protocol for low-cost photographic digitization and automated HTML publication of envelope-preserved entomological museum collections

Here, we present a protocol for digitizing envelope-preserved entomological museum specimens. We describe steps for acquiring images, transcribing labels into Darwin Core records, and validating taxonomy and geography. We then detail procedures for linking images to metadata and automatically generating searchable specimen and taxon HTML pages for open-access publication. We demonstrate the workflow using Odonata specimens from the Zoological Museum of Sapienza University of Rome. For complete details, please refer to Tamagnini et al. 1

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Publication Details

Journal
STAR Protocols
Published
2026-09-28
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xpro.2026.104871
Primary Topic
Species Distribution and Climate Change
Type
article
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article

Protocol for low-cost photographic digitization and automated HTML publication of envelope-preserved entomological museum collections

Claudio A. Chimenti, Davide Tamagnini
STAR Protocols
Species Distribution and Climate Change
article

Protocol for low-cost photographic digitization and automated HTML publication of envelope-preserved entomological museum collections

Claudio A. Chimenti, Davide Tamagnini
article en

Abstract

Here, we present a protocol for digitizing envelope-preserved entomological museum specimens. We describe steps for acquiring images, transcribing labels into Darwin Core records, and validating taxonomy and geography. We then detail procedures for linking images to metadata and automatically generating searchable specimen and taxon HTML pages for open-access publication. We demonstrate the workflow using Odonata specimens from the Zoological Museum of Sapienza University of Rome. For complete details, please refer to Tamagnini et al. 1

STAR ProtocolsVol. 7(4)
Sapienza University of Rome (IT)
Openalex Percentile: Top 14%
Species Distribution and Climate Change
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