Oral Paper

         Education and Outreach

The Hand Lens: Connecting Citizens with Cryptogamic Communities

Presenting Author
Amanda Chandler
Description
The Hand Lens (THL) is an online public storytelling platform created with the goal of increasing access to botanical natural history collections (NHCs). By linking NHC data procured from digitization projects to relatable stories, information held within and surrounding herbaria can be made more accessible to groups other than what is traditionally considered as the scientific research community. One such digitization project is the large-scale GLOBAL Bryophyte & Lichen Thematic Collections Network (TCN), which links 25 herbaria across the United States with the baseline goal of digitizing all extra-North American lichen and bryophyte collections within them. A significant emphasis of the GLOBAL TCN lies in public education and outreach. Discussion surrounding the use of digital NHC data tends to center more on how this information can further scientific research and less on how it can be used to enrich the general public and raise awareness of under-recognized groups of biodiversity. Since its launch in April 2019, THL has published 387 stories covering a variety of topics. Articles range from brief features of charismatic specimens to highlighting collectors from marginalized groups and the interwoven colonial history surrounding botanical expeditions and collections. If told with a sense of accountability and honesty, collections-based stories can publicly support a more inclusive dialogue concerning the social and cultural issues that are inevitably coupled with botanical history. THL also provides an opportunity for digitization interns to participate in writing science communication articles and to delve further into the cultural and social conversations surrounding the history of the collections they are working with. Here we explore how this public platform has been used to connect the general public with the relatively underrepresented realm of cryptogamic botany and the stories of the people who have contributed to the field.