The Apiary Project Goal is to answer the following:

What workflow provides for a combination of machine-assisted and human-assisted procedures to most effectively and efficiently convert textual data on specimen labels into machine-processable parsed data to ingest in a database and associate with the digitized specimen?

The project goal will be accomplished through the following objectives:

• Identify and test machine processes for initial transformation of label data
• Identify human processes that act on the machine-transformed data to correct and enhance label data
• Develop, test, and assess user interfaces to support human processes
• Develop and test a workflow that incorporates both machine- and human-assisted procedures for effectiveness and efficiency in label data transformation and enhancement
• Assess quality of metadata resulting from machine and human processes
• Maximize speed and accuracy of data transformation from the physical to the digital
• NOT to database thousands of specimens

The results of this research will yield a new workflow model for effective and efficient label data transformation, correction, and enhancement that can be replicated, adapted, and transferred to herbaria and other natural history collections.