Taxonomy of Digital Preservation: A Study of Digital Biodiversity & Ecological Collections

Abstract

This paper covers the metadata standards, digital curation practices, and data organization approaches of three major biodiversity-focused digital libraries in the US: the Biodiversity Heritage Library, the American Museum of Natural History, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Digital Library System. A key finding shows that these libraries primarily organize their records by using general metadata standards such as Dublin Core (DC) and MODS, rather than ecology-focused standards like Darwin Core (DwC), which help organize and link records within their taxonomic and environmental contexts. This study also shows that when libraries opt for general over specialized metadata standards, important ecological data becomes difficult to share across global biodiversity research networks and tends to remain isolated within individual institutions. To improve interoperability and discoverability, the findings of this research suggest that the digital libraries in this study (and similar collections), could benefit by adopting DwC metadata standards or by switching to a hybrid integration model that combines DC and DwC. Overall, this study is relevant for the following reasons: biodiversity loss and climate change are real threats, the web of life remains incomplete, and library collections play a role in preserving important ecological data that can help support global conservation efforts.

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Data Curation, Darwin Core (DwC), Digital Libraries, Digital Preservation, Dublin Core (DC), Ecological Data, Endangered Species, Interoperability, Metadata Standards, Natural History, Taxonomy