Overview of the NMNH Collection Level Index

(CLI)

National Museum ofNatural History (NMNH)

Tom Hollowell

14 Oct 2014

The Challenge

The U.S. National Entomological Collection is huge

The Challenge

The U.S. National Entomological Collection is huge

21 million records may be required for complete coverage at the specimen or vial level

19 million records of pinned specimens

1.4 million slides

500,000 fluid

100,000 papered (Odonata)

They’re done!

Archineura incarnata

Euglossa ioprosopa Type

Of about 300,000Specimen records, 38% are Types

Solutions?

Summer 2014• 44,000 Bumblebee specimens imaged in 8 weeks

• ca. 40 bees per person/hour of specimen handling

SI Rapid Capture Pilot Program - Bumblebee Project

SI Rapid Capture Pilot Program - Bumblebee Project

Handling, imaging w/ barcode as filename, storageImport, linked to EMu stub Catalog record

Published, & to SI Transcription CenterThe Crowd

Resulting details to EMuA big advance!Still, at 5,500/weekthe entire Entomology collection might be a 60 year project.

In the mean time…

There is a need to create basic digital records for broad swaths of the collection

2009 - A Collection Level Index (CLI) had already been implemented by NHM - London

• Catalogs and manages lot-level records in EMu

• Creates an Index record for each distinct taxon

• Allows entry of geographic distribution lists

• For each lot, can also include– Specimen counts

– Storage locations

– Preparation Sex, Stage information

KE analyzed many CLI Model options

This last one is essentially the NHM-London Model

Model 7

NMNH tried a modification of the NHM model

But finally decided to entirely specify our own model

Basic Requirements

• Workflow for recording Lots as close to typical Specimen entry as practical.

• Attach taxa and record counts in the Catalog, exactly as for specimen records.

• Enter distribution lists in the Catalog, in lieu of Collection Event attachment.

• Summarize distributions, counts and other parameters in a Collection Index record for each taxon, across all qualifying Specimen and Taxonomic Lot records.

The NMNH Model

Typical specimen record Distribution data is in Collection Event

Taxonomic Lot record Distribution in Catalog Taxon attachment in Catalog

Collection Index record Summarizes qualifying Catalog records

“Model 8”

The Solution

collections.nmnh.si.edu

Example Photos (currently some Lepidoptera)

Some types of question become easier to answer with CLI“What other countries are Guyana Coleoptera known from?”

30 seconds

12 minutes for all 13,400 taxa from our 7 collecting units, over 11,700,000 specimens

,,

A Favorite Taxonomic Lot Record

Thanks to:

KE Software

Ian Turnbull Grant Smith

NMNH Informatics

Tom Orrell John Keltner

NMNH Department of Entomology

Patricia Gentili-Poole Jessica Bird

Other Departmental Testers

Linda Ward (IZ), Karen Reed (IZ), Craig Ludwig (VZ), Chris Tuccinardi (Botany)

CLI - available in EMu-Mu ?