I want to discuss the research, publications, images & data #GLAMs produce about nature. I want to try to explain to you what GLAM #NaturalHistory collections mean to me. How much I love them and WHY I love them. #OpenGLAM

Take for example @NHM_London. The @NHM_Digitise team work hard to digitise their specimens and this amazing museum then allows the reuse of their images under a CC BY 4.0 license. (Image by @NHM_London https://www.nhm.ac.uk/services/media-store/asset/807d8842029312528570465e7d2e768add999c06/contents/preview?_ga=2.71850001.30749803.1589397661-540120265.1588671789 CC BY 4.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) #OpenGLAM

Many folk look at this image and think "pretty butterfly" (I do too!) BUT I also look at those lovely labels & I see #DATA! @NHM_London is even MORE magnificent in my eyes because they publish their specimen data under a CC0 license. https://www.gbif.org/dataset/7e380070-f762-11e1-a439-00145eb45e9a #GLAM #NaturalHistory

Some folk are moved to happy tears looking at art (me too - I've cried every time I've been in the presence of The Milkmaid by Vermeer). But I ALSO cry with happiness when I see a #CC0 data #masterpiece such as this, produced by @NHM_London & published in @GBIF.

Most folk have absolutely no idea what that data actually represents. Going back to that pretty butterfly - THAT butterfly is a paratype of its species. It's one of the specimens scientists used to describe its whole species.

That second label next to the butterfly, well that tells you exactly where this butterfly was collected, the date it what collected and the two folk who collected it. There is a story here.

I bet Nick Grishin and Qian Cong can remember discovering this butterfly. They could tell you how hard it was to get the field trip funded, the trials & tribulations of the road trip to get to that location, how sweaty they got chasing butterflies in Texas. #OpenGLAM

The blue label tells me that Nick Grishin worked with Kojiro Shiraiwa to publish a paper describing this species. I hope that paper is #OpenAccess. Yes it is! https://zookeys.pensoft.net/article/4409/  Again, this paper tells a story (in science speak) about this butterfly & the folk studying it.

The blue label also tells me the scientific name of this butterfly "Heraclides rumiko". This name tells a story and not just of the butterfly itself. The research paper explains that this butterfly is named in honour Rumiko, the wife of the Kojiro Shiraiwa.

The next label tells me Nick Grishin took DNA from this butterfly. Somewhere out there is even MORE data about this particular insect. The little label underneath that indicates the @NHM_London holds a collection of Nick Grishin's butterflies. This is only one of many!

Then multiple ALL these stories that can be told about this butterfly MILLIONS of times. Because EVERY natural history museum that contains specimens can tell stories like this for each of them.

THAT is what I see when I look at that dataset published by @NHM_London. And that's why I cry with happiness when I discover the images are licensed CC BY 4.0 and the data is licensed CC0. Because it means I and others like me can help tell these stories.