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The Natural History Collections of Adam Mickiewicz University (AMUNATCOLL) in Poznań contain over 2.2 million specimens. Until recently, access to the collections was limited to specialists and was challenging because of the analogue data files. Therefore, this paper presents a new approach to data sharing called the Scientific, Educational, Public, and Practical Use (SEPP) Model. Since the stakeholder group is broad, the SEPP Model assumes the following key points: full open access to the digitized collections, the structure of metadata in accordance with certain standards, and a versatile tool set for data mining or statistical and spatial analysis. The SEPP Model was implemented in the AMUNATCOLL IT system, which consists of a web portal equipped with a wide set of explorative functionalities tailored to different user groups: scientists, students, officials, and nature enthusiasts. An integral part of the system is a mobile application designed for field surveys, enabling users to conduct studies comparing their own field data and AMUNATCOLL data. The AMUNATCOLL IT database contains digital data on specimens, biological samples, bibliographic sources, and multimedia nature documents. The metadata structure was developed in accordance with ABCD 2.06 and Darwin Core standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a project aimed at digitizing and openly sharing the natural history collections (AMUNATCOLL) of the Faculty of Biology at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (Poland). The result of this project is a database (including 2.2 million records) of plant, fungal and animal specimens, which is available online via the AMUNATCOLL portal and on the Global Biodiversity Information Facility website. This article presents selected aspects of the "life cycle" of this project, with a particular focus on its preparatory phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Natural history spatial data are essential in biogeographical and ecological modeling. • A list of geographical information sources for geotagging purposes is developed. • A good practice guide for the geotagging process is proposed. • A spatial quality assessment of descriptions of specimen locations is developed. • The limitations of the geotagging of archival data are analyzed. The availability of archival spatial datasets, which are crucial means of obtaining valuable information in biological and ecological research, is often limited due to the analog form of the data. Therefore, digitization projects of natural history collections (NHCs) currently show a rising trend. Increasingly, these projects include geotagging, which means assigning geographical coordinates and spatial attributes to specimens discovered in the field. Although numerous studies have examined the process of digitizing NHCs, there is still a need to develop good practice guides and a unified database or list of geographical information resources. Moreover, the accuracy of the spatial assignment of specimen locations in many online databases is unacceptable for environmental research. Therefore, it is important to develop a methodology to standardize geotagging methods. The first goal of this paper was to create and verify a list of available online sources of geotagged spatial information. The second goal was to develop a good practice guide for geotagging NHCs based on the limitations resulting from the specificity of archival data. These aims were achieved owing to participation in the AMU Nature Collections project – digitization and sharing of natural data resources of the Faculty of Biology of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (AMUNATCOLL). The results of the proposed methodology indicate that natural history data are so heterogeneous in terms of spatial description quality that it is not always possible to unambiguously and precisely geotag them. Therefore, it is important to implement the spatial quality assessment and commenting system proposed by the authors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]