The digitization of natural history collections calls for new, efficient solutions. Digitization of millions of specimens, with reasonable digitization costs and high statistical repeatability requires increased automation and industrial‐scale work‐flows. However, the variation in specimen form, size and coloring creates challenges for digitization methodology, pushing development towards optional actions. In this paper, we report the results of the digitization of herbarium and beetle collections using automated imaging lines. The technology of the imaging lines was based on a common innovation, but the versions used were applied to either 2‐D sheets or small 3‐D objects. The aim was to develop processes for enhancing the digitization of natural history specimens, but at the same time, to produce end products with high quality. Results showed that the herbarium and beetle collections could be digitized by using automation at the rate of hundreds or thousands of individual specimens per day. This is 5–10 times faster than the more manual methods of digitization which were previously used. The produced data, images and specimen label data were uniform in quality and could be viewed within minutes after being produced. Results indicate that the efficiency of digitization can be raised for different types of natural history specimens by use of automation and well‐defined processes, and the increase in production rate does not reduce the quality of the end‐results.

Digitarium is a joint initiative of the Finnish Museum of Natural History and the University of Eastern Finland. It was established in 2010 as a dedicated shop for the large-scale digitisation of natural history collections. Digitarium offers service packages based on the digitisation process, including tagging, imaging, data entry, georeferencing, filtering, and validation. During the process, all specimens are imaged, and distance workers take care of the data entry from the images. The customer receives the data in Darwin Core Archive format, as well as images of the specimens and their labels. Digitarium also offers the option of publishing images through Morphbank, sharing data through GBIF, and archiving data for long-term storage. Service packages can also be designed on demand to respond to the specific needs of the customer. The paper also discusses logistics, costs, and intellectual property rights (IPR) issues related to the work that Digitarium undertakes.

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-Data produced by digitization increases the scientific use of natural history collections. However, in mass digitization, attention must be paid to the flawless management of the workflows, and high quantities of end results should not be compromised by a low standard of quality. A web-based environment DigiWeb was created for controlling the workflow of transcribing data from images of natural history specimens. Using DigiWeb, it was possible to manage the workflow of transcription and data proofing, include all participants to the workflow, allow collaboration and training, and also to provide useful processing features. The data emerging from this process pass quality control standards which are supported by DigiWeb and based on the strict requirements of the ISO 2859 standard.