EMu and the Natural Sciences at Museum Victoria
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Transcript of EMu and the Natural Sciences at Museum Victoria
EMu and the Natural Sciences
at Museum Victoria
Dermot A. Henry
Manager, Natural Science Collections
Museum Victoria, Melbourne
Thanks yous!
• Entomology: Ken Walker, Kristy
Hoath, Sarah McCaffrey, Peter
Lillywhite, Catriona McPhee.
• Terrestrial Vertebrates: Wayne
Longmore & Rory O’Brien
• EMu team: Nancy Ladas & Alex
Chubaty
Museum Victoria
• Museum of
Natural Sciences,
Indigenous
Studies, Social
History, and
History of Science
& Technology
Museum Victoria• 1854 National Museum of
Victoria
• 1986 Amalgamation of the Science Museum of Victoria and the National Museum of Victoria
• 2000 Melbourne Museum opened
• Immigration Museum and Scienceworks
This talk…
• Introduction to MV Natural Science
collections & EMu
• Some recent EMu projects
• Web outputs
The collections: The real thing!
Collections
• Diverse collections of zoological and geological specimens which underpin MV Research
• Research conducted by MV Research Curators, CMs, associates, students etc
• Providing access to collections to facilitate other researchers (from within Australia and overseas)
• Distilling the stories from research for the general public, eg exhibitions, public programs
• Promoting science
Natural Science collections
• Over 15 million
specimens
• 3.2 million
collection
management units
• 1,061,706 units on
database
Natural Science collections
• Reference e.g. Types
• Systematics
• Diversity reflecting
morphological
differences,
geographic
distributions etc
History of EMu• 1982 Museum obtains
Titan/Texpress
• 1996 Commence
development of EMu
• 2000 Commencement of
transfer of Texpress to
EMu
• 2007 Completion 48
individual Texpress
databases transferred!
History of EMu• Natural Sciences had
some resistance to Emu − preference for flat screen approach of Texpress
• Over time, changing mindset − viewing EMu as data management tool not solely a collection management tool
Registration Project• ≈ 2004 an explosion in the need to electronically register
data at specimen level for research-based and other biodiversity mapping initiatives
• Examples include:
• MV’s Bioinformatics and Pest and Diseases Images Library web projects
• International Global Biodiversity Information Resource and Australian Zoological Collections Online. Atlas of Living Australia
• Specific external research initiatives which have provided funding for MV to register collections
• MV needed to reassess baseline registration methodologies to meet this need
Registration project• Overcome the
mindset that the collections were too big to register
• Over 15 million specimens
• 3.2 million collection management units
• Acknowledge the ‘risk management’ value of registrations.
Registration project
• Commenced 2004-2005
• Acknowledgement that increased registration
rates are not possible with current staffing
resources in collections
• Purpose: to register the majority of the State
Collections, including a substantial backlog of
unregistered collection material
• ‘Backlog’ considered to be material acquired
before 2004
Registration project
• Tackle smallest collections first
• Define a tight minimum dataset
• Do not attempted to exhaustively capture all
information
• Enhance data appropriately (eg latitudes
and longitudes to facilitate mapping projects
Registration Project• 2004/5 Recruited 3
‘specialist’ registration officers
• Additional funding acquired from Entomology grant funds − employed 3 additional staff
• Tackle smallest collections first and specific subsets of Entomology
• First year approximately 98,000 records
Zoology: Fish
• Approximately 430,100 specimens
• Stored as 44,000 lots
• 2004/5 completed approx 11,000 records
captured
Zoology: Herpetology
Vertebrate
• 77,000 specimens
• 3,000 records
captured
Zoology: Birds
• 73,000 specimens
• Skins, mounts, skeletons, eggs and nests
• Approximately 5,000 captured. Egg collection excluded
Zoology: Mammals
• Approximately 40,000
specimens
• Skeletons, skins and
display mounts
• 8,000 captured
Trichoptera data Google mapping
• 70 000
records
Trichoptera data. Google mapping
Registration Project
• Approximately 1/3 of NS Collections data
captured. Individual disciplines completed:
• Birds, Mammals and Herpetology
• Ichthyology
• Natural Science art
• Mineralogy, Meteorites, Tektites
• Subsets of large collections of Marine
invertebrates and Entomology collections
Registration Project
• Averaging 74,000 NS records per year to June 2010. Cost of approximately $2.35 per record
• Increased data set from 615,638to 1,061,706
• Demonstrated that, with appropriate funding, major inroads to the backlog could be achieved
Palaeontology collections• Approximately 4 million
samples
• 250,000 vertebrates
• 100,000 plants
• 3.5 million invertebrates
• 14,000 Type specimens
• Palynology slides from Victorian oil wells
Palaeontology registration
• Setting priorities
• Capture all
paper
registered
specimens
Tissue Bank
• Registration
and barcoding
of samples
Entomology Type project• 2.5 million specimens
• 20,000 Type specimens (approx 3,500 ‘dry’ primary types)
• Largest aquatic insect collection in Australia
Entomology Type project• 3-year project to
image capture approximately 3,500 primary types
• Reduce the need to transport fragile specimens for loans
Entomology Type project• Employed specialist staff
to take high resolution
images using
multilayering techniques
and computer
combination of images
• Up to 60 images per a
final view. Detailed depth
of view
• Next iteration will allow
use of ‘zoomify’ on Web
to see detail
Entomology Type project
Entomology Type project
Entomology Type project
• 2952 types
completed into
Emu
Entomology Type project
• Available on
Web
Entomology Type project
• Has increased
requests for info on
Types but often high
res images are suffice
Bird egg registration and image capture project.
• Set priorities for
staff – free them
up!
• Set targets
• Include image
capture of all
specimens
Egg registration
Egg registration
• 20,000 clutches
• Data entry
completed in 2
years
• Data set suitable
for development of
egg identification
website
McCann image collection • Acquired November 2009
• Ian McCann was a keen wildlife and botanical photographer
• Amassed a collection in excess of 20,000 35 mm Kodachrome slides
• Many published images
McCann image collection • Ian McCann passed away
in July 2003. His family were keen for his collection to go to appropriate institutions for not-for-profit use
• July 2009, Museum acquired zoological image component – 5,400 images mainly Victorian fauna, approx 300 to 400 families
McCann image collection
• 1450: Reptiles and amphibians
• 980: Mammals
McCann image collection
• 1860: Birds
• 400: Insect, Crustaceans, Molluscs, worms and Butterflies
• 690: Spiders
McCann image collection • All slides catalogued in
EMu
• All slides digitised (high
resolution)
• All images attached to
slide catalogue record
and to taxonomic records
Red-capped Robin (male)
McCann image collection
McCann image collection
Catalogue and taxonomy modules
McCann image taxonomy module
Coral snake
McCann image collection
• Available on the
web via the
taxonomic
module
• Fantastic on
line resource!
Collections on-line
• Redevelopment of
Science and Life
Galleries completed
in Oct 2010
• Collections on-line
priority for 2010 /
2011 for Natural
Sciences
Promoting access
• Data available via
other search engines.
• OZCAM
• GBIF
• Atlas of living
Australia
• Atlas of Life
BioinformaticsDistribution – space and timeAuthenticated data
BioinformaticsDistribution – vegetation
Bioinformatics
• Leasing of data to
other Agencies
• Ability to provide
data in a format
required
Promoting access: Online
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Promoting access : Online
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Promoting access
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Promoting access
Data enhancement
Narratives for target websites
Conclusions• Providing access is core business
• Pressure to make collections more accessible via on line processes
• Acknowledge the importance of datasets and fund appropriately
• Set registration priorities
• Effective and efficient means of data enhancement
• Make available on-line through raw and filtered data methods for a range of users.