Conference: BioDigiCon 2023Session: 2023 Collection Digitization Spotlight: NHM LondonPresentation Date: 2023-09-19Location: Online (Zoom)Abstract:Every natural history collection differs due to its provenance, including where, who, when and sometimes why a specimen was collected; the kinds of specimens in the collection; its current curatorial state; and, how the collection was (and is) used.These are important considerations when understanding and preserving what we have, but in order to unlock some of the information hidden within, you need to look at your collection with a different perspective. Sometimes, your collection requires you to be a historian, sometimes a linguist. In order to care for and unlock the information, we need to be a bit of a jack of all trades.In this talk I will show you a couple of examples of how much information is locked inside each individual label, how we unlock it and how it helps us better understand our collection and its history. I will share a couple of case studies, stories we discovered, and tools that will help you do the same