The Natural History Production Line: An Industrial Approach to the Digitization of Scientific Collections

In 2010, Naturalis Biodiversity Center started one of the largest and most diverse programs for natural history collection digitization to date. From a total collection of 37 million specimens and related objects, 7 million relevant objects are to be digitized in a 5-year period. This article provides an overview of the program and discusses the chosen industrial production line approach, the applied method for prioritization of collections that are to be digitized, and some preliminary results.