3.4. Collection management systems (TECHNOLOGY)

I’m in hopes we have a sort of “software summit” to gather developers and some of the key users of these software platforms to have a decadal meeting (where have we come in 10 years, where do we want to go). In this meeting, we’d talk about needs / path to integrating TDWG DQ standards into CMS systems, interoperability needed / or opportunities for more interoperability. Example: Agents tables with Wikidata. And, we could move toward (or at least discuss feasibility) “metadata” tables in CMS to reduce the burden of creating, mapping, exporting, updating, publishing these data. This would also have the added benefit of simplifying annual reporting. As you point out @elyw, often this data must be compiled anew each time it’s needed locally, let alone regionally or globally. The Global Aggregated understanding of what we have, is still far from complete, and very difficult to estimate. As we continue to digitize, our estimates will continue to improve.

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Thanks for joining us Rich! If you have questions about MIDS, lots of folks would be happy to discuss with you such as Elspeth Haston at RBGE. @waddink too, and me :slight_smile:

Hi Tim,
This is an interesting idea to explore as a possible STEP 1.
If we added CD fields to it, I could see it working.

My main observation is that many of the EML fields (being free text), often result in confusing data.

Sometimes collections describe their dataset in the EML file. Other times they describe their entire collections (which may not all be included in the dataset). And sometimes, a mix. This makes it difficult to understand what’s being described in the EML w/o looking at the associated data records.

IF we could use the EML (+ CD fields) and then
a) make it clear we’re looking for metadata
b) make it possible to link to any specimen-record-level datasets being shared

This could be a first pass at a workable system I think.

Even better then, once collections have metadata tables in their databases, then a view of the table data could be linked automatically to the IPT.

How might one link a collection’s wikidata page into this vision of using the IPT for EML metadata files?

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@rich87, MIDS is still work in progress, you can find the latest draft here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fpfn_bh2htvJl1bfDrdxd6hIZPdZnuTq9KK-cetmWRE/edit#heading=h.svg0ouedud33. Comments are welcome!

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Among the various ways of providing data to the catalogue that have been mentioned in this and other topics of this consultation the integration with CDMS would be my preferred route to go.

I would like to be able to manage collection information (that is then channeled to this catalogue or other destinations) seamlessly with information on the specimens that make up these collections. Once a collection is defined in terms of the specimens that are its constituent parts or other criteria I would want automatic updates of information aggregated on the level of the collection based on the specimen-level information and I would like to be able to configure automatic publication of that collection-level data.

I would not want to compile, manage and export data on the collections’ level with a second independent system.

This might be especially useful for the wider data linkages based on aggregated specimen data and corresponding services disussed in topics 2.5 and 2.6, respectively.

Also, when collections are defined according to intensional criteria, e.g., all specimens collected by a particular collector, then such integration would automatically pick up on updated knowledge about the specimens - we expect that digitization will expose a lot of such hitherto unknown specimen properties.

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It is not quite that simple at least for Symbiota, it functions like Specify, Arctos, EMu etc. but it also functions like Vertnet or SpeciesLink as a primary aggregator. You can either enter data directly into Symbiota or use Excel and upload a CSV version or batch upload an EMu dataset via IPT.

From our experience developing an integrated Biodiversity Information Management System for Collections of different types, one of the requirements was to support the Collection Management, particularly the annual estimation of specimens in the different collections. This is important because the collections are considered National Heritage in some of our countries and specimens are never given away, they are lent in perpetuity, so they need to be tracked. But this can’t be accurately calculated or tracked unless all the operation was digitized, (which was never the case), there was always something in the backlog, something being prepared, something from the wet collection being mounted, something not there yet, so estimations at the Catalogue level are always necessary. Apart from the challenge of creating and maintaining totals for collections that couldn’t be added, considering those loans/duplicates sent to other institutions was vital in determining how realistic the estimations were and country reports were dependant on this information at the Catalog level.

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