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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 7/11/13 9:01 AM, Mireia Beas-Moix
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CAKVpLFOaNZq8XKje0FztqiS-cF34nVyANcx9DKYCbdqT4r=BMQ@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite"><span
style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#222222">I
have a question for curators who have uploaded their specimen
records
to an online database. Did you clean your data and hide
information for
particular specimens, species or localities? For example, you
may want to
block access to the geographic coordinates for the locality of
an endangered
species.</span><br>
</blockquote>
I've heard this idea (re: endangered taxa in databases) voiced
repeatedly for at least 20 years now, and have found that in reality
it rarely makes a difference; *most* such species have their
distributions well-enough known and publicized that there is no new
information being offered by putting the specimen records online.
This includes the fact that a lot of specimen records of such taxa
are old enough that the species no longer occurs where the specimen
was found, meaning that not only does concealing the data serve no
purpose, but it makes it harder for researchers using data to track
changes in species distributions over time. I consider data
concealment something that can only be decided on a record-by-record
basis, with careful thinking about the consequences - any "blanket"
policy stands to do more harm than good. If you're concerned enough,
then spend some time googling your taxon of interest and SEE for
yourself how much detail you can find online regarding the
distribution - and only be concerned if the information in your
database would be a significant addition to what is already easily
available.<br>
<br>
Peace,<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Doug Yanega Dept. of Entomology Entomology Research Museum
Univ. of California, Riverside, CA 92521-0314 skype: dyanega
phone: (951) 827-4315 (disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://cache.ucr.edu/~heraty/yanega.html">http://cache.ucr.edu/~heraty/yanega.html</a>
"There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82</pre>
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