[NHCOLL-L:1157] Re: web-enabled databases

[Gordon Jarrell]

The UAM Mammal Collection has been online in one format or another for
about six years.  Most recently it approximates the format at MVZ.

The only "negative" is that outside researchers on a few occasions have
requested recently collected material upon which in-house researchers
already had designs.  The curator has to make a curatorial decision that
may involve saying no, but it is difficult to describe "too much" demand
for museum specimens as a bad thing.

We have three (so far) security codes that can be set for catalog records.
The codes are implemented in the web interface.  One code causes the
collector's name to be displayed as anonymous.  Another filters out the
specific locality and geographic coordinates.  The third filters out the
entire records.  Thus far, we have had cause to implement only the first
because some Alaska Native subsistence hunters are concerned about
animal-rights activists.  (Others are proud to have their names associated
with museum specimens.)

Reduced requests for information hardly justifies the effort of
maintaining an online database.  Increased use of specimens, increased
interest in the collection, and explicit accountability are obvious
benefits.

Gordon H. Jarrell, Ph.D.
Acting Curator of Mammals
University of Alaska Museum
Fairbanks, AK 99775-6960 USA

phone - (907) 474-6946
fax -  (907) 474-5469
www.uaf.edu/museum/mammal