The Specify Collections Consortium

The Specify Collections Consortium (SCC), founded in 2018, is a collaborative, open-source software community of engaged collection institutions with a vision to advance research and education uses of biological specimen and sample information. A Board of Directors, along with User and Technology Advisory Committees drawn from member institutions, govern the Consortium and determine its software and technical service priorities. The Consortium advances the interests of its members through engineering, deployment, and support of software technologies that facilitate the creation, curation, discovery, and scientific utilization of the information and knowledge associated with biological collections.

The SCC informs member museum long-term strategies with biodiversity data processing including responding to the macrotrends affecting the collections community, such as economic pressure for collections consolidation, network security, national and international data aggregation, the move to cloud-based architectures, the need to computationally integrate collection curation and research, and opportunities for enhancing interoperability with broader science computing initiatives.

Building on 35-years of software and technical support for digitization and curatorial data processing, the Consortium will develop a focus on innovating analytical and additional integration capabilities into collections computing. For example, the SCC will develop analytical tools for quantitative analysis of collection holdings, in order to identify a collection’s informational strengths in several environmental areas, including phylogenetic, geographic, climatic, and temporal dimensions.  Future participation in Digital Object Model architectures promises to enhance data integration, interoperability, and collaborative data processing on a global scale.

The SCC collaborates with member institution technical staff to evolve computing strategies with research and deployment of new integrations, standards, and internet technologies. For smaller collections institutions, this SCC technology support can wholly eliminate the need for local IT staff through hosting, with updated, secure, database management in cloud-based services.  Larger institutions and national initiatives will engage with Consortium engineers to co-design larger, information management architectures and platforms and to contribute components to the Consortium’s open source software repositories for the benefit of all Specify collections.  With the Consortium acting as an extension of institutional IT, museums have no need to carry the daunting and recurring costs of software engineering to meet core research data processing requirements and to keep up with evolving global architectures.

Consortium Membership Levels and Benefits

Luminary Member – $150,000/year

Our Luminary tier builds on Visionary Membership to deliver the highest level of influence and support within the Specify Collections Consortium. Institutions at this level play a leading role in governance and enjoy the broadest technical services and testing privileges. Appropriate for multiple organizations and collections, numbers to be determined by mutual agreement in proportion to your institution’s size and needs.

• Three permanent seats on the SCC Board of Members
• One permanent seat on each SCC standing committee (Science & Technology)
• Limited-time “Global Testing” privileges for hosted members

Visionary Member – $100,000/year

Visionary Members help steer Consortium priorities while gaining extended technical resources and testing rights. This level shares many of the governance and support perks of Luminary, scaled for multiple organizations and up to 40 collections.

• Two permanent seats on the SCC Board of Members
• One permanent seat on each SCC standing committee (Science & Technology)
• Limited-time “Global Testing” privileges for hosted members

Foundation Member – $44,000/year

Foundation Members assume a central leadership role, guiding the Consortium’s strategic direction and technical roadmap. You’ll collaborate closely with Specify staff and enjoy robust support across multiple collections.  Appropriate for one institution and up to 30 collections.

• Two permanent seats on the SCC Board of Members
• One permanent seat on each SCC standing committee (User & Technology)
• Limited-time “Global Testing” period for one hosted database

Catalyst Member – $25,000/year

Catalyst Membership is ideal for institutions ready to accelerate their digitization efforts. You get direct governance input plus hands-on technical support for growing your collections program.  Appropriate for up to 20 collections.

• One permanent seat on the SCC Board of Members
• One permanent seat on one SCC standing committee (User or Technology)

Full Member – $5,500/year per collection

Full Members actively shape Consortium activities and receive comprehensive technical services for their collections. This level is perfect for collections that want proactive engagement without the larger governance commitments.

• Access to rotating seats on the SCC Board of Members
• Priority for one seat on an SCC standing committee (User or Technology)
• Full access to the Consortium help desk for a collection

Associate Member – $1,100/year per collection

Associate Membership offers core support and collaborative opportunities, ideal for institutions advancing their data-mobilization initiatives.

• Access to rotating seats on SCC standing committees (User, Technology)
• Full access to the Specify forum, help documentation, and training videos
• Two onboarding webinars for new members
• Access to the Consortium’s annual Work Plan
• Access to all Specify software tools and updates
• Incidental access to the Consortium help desk