Webinar 2: Entity relations for herbaria (Robert Cubey)

The following question(s) were asked in the Collection Management Systems Webinar and will be answered here.

Robert Cubey: Would you use entity relationships to cover multi sheets and multi-specimens on one sheet? (herbarium specific question sorry)

Response:

Yes. EntityRelationship is extremely flexible and can accommodate both of the scenarios you mention. Let’s explore this with some examples.

First example, one plant, multiple sheets. Let’s say that a single dwc:OrganismPlant1” has parts on multiple sheets, and that the sheets are tracked as separate collection objects (“Sheet1” and “Sheet2”).

Plant1 is an Entity with the following properties:
entityID: Plant1
entityType: dwc:Organism

Sheet1 is a MaterialEntity (and Entity) with the following properties:
entityID: Sheet1
entityType: MaterialEntity
materialEntityType: herbarium sheet

Sheet2 is a MaterialEntity (and Entity) with the following properties:
entityID: Sheet2
entityType: MaterialEntity
materialEntityType: herbarium sheet

The EntityRelationships between these might look like the following:
entityRelationshipID: er_id1
subjectEntityID: Sheet1
entityRelationshipType: part of
objectEntityID: Plant1

entityRelationshipID: er_id2
subjectEntityID: Sheet2
entityRelationshipType: part of
objectEntityID: Plant1

entityRelationshipID: er_id3
subjectEntityID: Plant1
entityRelationshipType: has part
objectEntityID: Sheet1

entityRelationshipID: er_id4
subjectEntityID: Plant1
entityRelationshipType: has part
objectEntityID: Sheet2

Second example, one sheet, multiple plants. Let’s say that a single collection object “Sheet3” has multiple plants on it, and that the plants are tracked as separate collection objects (“Plant2” and “Plant3”).

Sheet3 is a MaterialEntity (and Entity) with the following properties:
entityID: Sheet3
entityType: MaterialEntity
materialEntityType: herbarium sheet

Plant2 is an Entity with the following properties:
entityID: Plant2
entityType: dwc:Organism

Plant3 is an Entity with the following properties:
entityID: Plant3
entityType: dwc:Organism

The EntityRelationships between these might look like the following:
entityRelationshipID: er_id5
subjectEntityID: Sheet3
entityRelationshipType: has mounted
objectEntityID: Plant2

entityRelationshipID: er_id6
subjectEntityID: Sheet3
entityRelationshipType: has mounted
objectEntityID: Plant3

entityRelationshipID: er_id7
subjectEntityID: Plant1
entityRelationshipType: mounted on
objectEntityID: Sheet3

entityRelationshipID: er_id8
subjectEntityID: Plant2
entityRelationshipType: mounted on
objectEntityID: Sheet3

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