Symbiota is an open source software for the management and mobilization of biodiversity information (Gries et al. 2014). Symbiota generated portals work as online Collection Management Systems (CMS) and medium-scale aggregators, facilitating digitization and mobilization taks simultaneously. CMS features for live-managed collections include a form to directly transcribe specimen data and upload images, as well as more advanced label editing, loan management, and georeferencing tools. Aggregator features allow administrators to integrate snapshot collections that are not directly managed in the portals. Currently, more than 60 portals are maintained by the Symbiota Support Hub, now based at the University of Kansas. Each portal is managed by a community of biodiversity researchers, often focused on specific taxa or regions. The Guatemala Biodiversity Portal (GBP) is a Symbiota-based platform, dedicated to digitization and mobilization of natural history collections in the country (Orellana et al. 2024), serving academic, non-governmental and governmental institutions. In five years of activity (September 2020 to September 2025), the GBP enabled the digitization and mobilization of more than 58,000 records of Guatemalan collections and biodiversity surveys (Fig. 1). Additionally, the GBP integrates specimen and observation records shared by foreign collections and iNaturalist, with taxonomic resources available in IUCN, Catalog of Life, World Register of Marine Species, and the Biodiversity Heritage Library, among others, increasing accessibility of specialized information for local communities.<br> At least 86% of these records (more than 50,000) have also been mobilized to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) to increase their accessibility (GBIF 2025,Fig. 2). From GBIF, data can be cited in scientific publications and harvested by external platforms like Bionomia (Shorthouse 2020), aiding local researchers to claim credit for their collected and identified specimens. Moreover, the direct data mobilization to GBIF, has facilitated the aggregation of 30 collections and over 50,000 records to this global platform. The digital presence of Guatemalan collections has allowed the use of the data in at least 500 scientific publications, including studies developed by local scientists. Furthermore, Guatemalan collections and their digitized records are now available in the Global Registry of Scientific Collections (GRSciColl), increasing their international visibility.<br> The GBP has also facilitated development of Symbiota documentation in Spanish, as well as online and in-person training in Guatemala. Regular workshops, meetings, and social media communications keep the community engaged and updated about the GBP. Online activities have also reached hundreds of users in natural history collections across Latin America, increasing capacity for the mobilization of biodiversity data in the region. The poster in Spanish presented during the conference is available as Supplementary Material (Suppl. material 1).
