In this Organized Oral Session, we bring together a diversity of speakers who have incorporated biological specimen data into their ecological research. Specimen collections include centuries of information from around the world and, as a result, comprise data collected in a wide range of formats, languages, media, accuracy, precision, and completeness. Using these data therefore requires an interdisciplinary approach that incorporates international standards and protocols. Further, these efforts must be forward-thinking to anticipate the needs of future researchers and the capabilities of future technologies. The opportunities and challenges in working with these data are numerous and widely applicable across ecological fields. The session will include talks that span taxa, time and geographies, with an emphasis on data from iDigBio (Integrated Digitized Biocollections; www.idigibio.org). The session will begin with an introduction to iDigBio within the framework of the larger biodiversity collections community. Speakers will then present information on best practices in field-based data collection, publishing datasets, and examples from research groups that have successfully used biodiversity specimen data to address challenging ecological questions in the sub-fields of botany, entomology, marine ecology, and citizen science. Presentations will include information on data standards, sharing and publishing data, attribution and data gaps. They will also include data management strategies that are used to digitize, access, share, analyze, archive, update, and publish biodiversity data. The broad range of applications of biodiversity data in ecological research and the benefits of collaboration will be explored. Lastly, speakers in this session will explore the ways in which ecologists and biodiversity specimen collections can work together to improve data quality, enhance research, and ensure reproducible science.