Matt von Konrat‡, Yarency Rodriguez‡, Colleen Bailey‡, Gilbert F. Gwilliam III‡, Christine Christian‡, Blanka Aguero§, June Ahn‡, Zoe Albion|, James R Allen¶, Colin Bailey#, Erryn Blake¤, Winnie Blake¤, Gwen Blake¤, Laura Briscoe«, Jessica Budke», Thomas Campbell˄, Matt Chansler˅, Dina Clark¶, Robin Delapena‡, Michael Denslow¦, Shari Ellisˀ, Elizabeth Ellwoodˁ, Belle Ens‡, Nkosi Michael Evans₵, Alejandra Fabian‡, Wyatt Gaswick‡, Kate Golembiewski‡, Sharon Grant‡, Kimberly Hansen‡, Brittany Janneyℓ, Janeen Jones‡, Zachary Kachian‡, Lucia Kawasaki‡, Olivia Leek₰, Kacee Kellum‡, Crystal Maier₱, Austin Mast₳, Joann Lacey Martinec‡, Paul Mayer‡, Melissa Mladek‡, Ainun Nadhifah₴, Christopher Neefus₣, Mary Nodulman‡, Margaret Oliver», Kelsey Overberg‡, A. Townsend Peterson₮, Ayesha Qazi-Lampert‡, Carl Rothfels₦, Robert Salm‡, Dawn Schreiner‡, Matthew Schreiner‡, Eric J. Tepe₰, Maureen Turcatel‡, Amelia Vega‡, Heaven Wade‡, Dianne Weinand‡, Kate Webbink‡, Todd Widhelm‡, Miranda Zwingelberg»Corresponding author: Matt von Konrat ( mkonrat@fieldmuseum.org ) © Matt von Konrat, Yarency Rodriguez, Colleen Bailey, Gilbert Gwilliam III, Christine Christian, Blanka Aguero, June Ahn, Zoe Albion, James Allen, Colin Bailey, Erryn Blake, Winnie Blake, Gwen Blake, Laura Briscoe, Jessica Budke, Thomas Campbell, Matt Chansler, Dina Clark, Robin Delapena, Michael Denslow, Shari Ellis, Elizabeth Ellwood, Belle Ens, Nkosi Evans, Alejandra Fabian, Wyatt Gaswick, Kate Golembiewski, Sharon Grant, Kimberly Hansen, Brittany Janney, Janeen Jones, Zachary Kachian, Lucia Kawasaki, Olivia Leek, Kacee Kellum, Crystal Maier, Austin Mast, Joann Martinec, Paul Mayer, Melissa Mladek, Ainun Nadhifah, Christopher Neefus, Mary Nodulman, Margaret Oliver, Kelsey Overberg, A. Townsend Peterson, Ayesha Qazi-Lampert, Carl Rothfels, Robert Salm, Dawn Schreiner, Matthew Schreiner, Eric Tepe, Maureen Turcatel, Amelia Vega, Heaven Wade, Dianne Weinand, Kate Webbink, Todd Widhelm, Miranda Zwingelberg. This is an open access preprint distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Citation:
von Konrat M, Rodriguez Y, Bailey C, Gwilliam III GF, Christian C, Aguero B, Ahn J, Albion Z, Allen J, Bailey C, Blake E, Blake W, Blake G, Briscoe L, Budke J, Campbell T, Chansler M, Clark D, Delapena R, Denslow M, Ellis S, Ellwood E, Ens B, Evans N, Fabian A, Gaswick W, Golembiewski K, Grant S, Hansen K, Janney B, Jones J, Kachian Z, Kawasaki L, Leek O, Kellum K, Maier C, Mast A, Martinec J, Mayer P, Mladek M, Nadhifah A, Neefus C, Nodulman M, Oliver M, Overberg K, Peterson AT, Qazi-Lampert A, Rothfels C, Salm R, Schreiner D, Schreiner M, Tepe EJ, Turcatel M, Vega A, Wade H, Weinand D, Webbink K, Widhelm T, Zwingelberg M (2024) From Spectators to Stewards: Transforming Public Involvement in Natural History Collections. ARPHA Preprints. https://doi.org/10.3897/arphapreprints.e132939 |  |
A comprehensive overview of volunteer-driven public programs focused on activities to enhance natural history collections (NHCs) is provided. The initiative revolves around the WeDigBio events and the Collections Club at the Field Museum, aiming to deepen the public's connection with scientific collections, enhance participatory science, and improve data associated with natural history specimens. The implementation and journey of these programs are outlined, including surveys conducted from 2015 through 2021 to gauge participant motivation, satisfaction, and the impact of these events on public engagement with NHCs. Results show trends in on-site and virtual volunteer participation over the years, especially during the peak period of the COVID-19 pandemic. The majority of participants expressed high satisfaction, indicating a willingness to continue participating in similar activities. The surveys revealed a shift towards more altruistic motivations for participation over time, with increased emphasis on supporting the Field Museum and contributing to the scientific community. The success of participatory science events demonstrates the potential of volunteer-driven programs to contribute meaningfully to the preservation, digitisation, and understanding of biodiversity collections, ultimately transforming spectators into stewards of natural history. From 2015 to present participants celebrate a significant milestone, with over a thousand community scientists contributing to the inventorying, collection care, curation, databasing, or transcription of 286,071 specimens, objects or records. We also discuss accuracy and quality control as well as a checklist and recommendations for similar activities.