[Nhcoll-l] Has anyone had experience using Specify as electronic museum management system?

Fri Oct 2 11:05:43 EDT 2015

Actually, my previous email is not concise in some regards- there is
another facet. If you had a redetermination of a genus, you can globally
synonymize the old determination with the new. This way, you get to 'hang
on' to the taxonomic history as well as quickly update old taxonomy.

-Angie

On Fri, Oct 2, 2015 at 9:39 AM, angie thompson <angie.c.thompson at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Tom,
>
> You can do a global updates in *some* cases. If, say, a genus was
> misspelled in the taxon tree- correcting the mistake in the taxon tree
> (aka, 'editing' the node instead of 'adding a new determination') would fix
> it for all records tied to that node. You cannot yet create a record-set
> and update only those records included in the set. As to the
> export/fix/reimport, that mechanism is not in place. Granted, if you have
> someone who can work directly with the SQL database, none of these issues
> apply. The edit records limitation only applies to interacting with data
> from the 'normal' interface.
>
> I have asked the Specify crew about downloading ALL the data for each
> record into a huge spreadsheet, fixing the records that need tweaking, then
> blowing away the current install of Specify and reinstalling it.
> Shockingly*, this was not met with much approval.
>
>
>
> -Angie
>
>
> *note: It was not really shocking that the crew didn't approve. In truth,
> it was more shocking that nobody fainted at the notion. I would NEVER
> seriously suggest this as an option. But I think I did get my point across
> for how much we want GUI based mass editing capabilities!
>
> On Fri, Oct 2, 2015 at 9:19 AM, Thomas J Trombone <trombone at amnh.org>
> wrote:
>
>> Hi Angie,
>>
>>
>>
>> If you and Lien don’t mind my jumping in, I have a question about
>> Specify’s capabilities. Is there no means of performing a single global
>> update operation across a set of records? For example, in the case you gave
>> where some records are assigned to a new taxonomic name, does the user need
>> to edit each record individually as opposed to performing one operation
>> that automatically edits all of them? (Or perhaps some global updates are
>> possible in Specify, but not in this particular case involving taxonomic
>> reassignments?)
>>
>>
>>
>> Alternatively, can data be exported, edited externally (in something like
>> Excel or Access)  and then re-imported, allowing one to avoid having to
>> edit each record individually?
>>
>>
>>
>> We use KE EMu in my department at AMNH but I’m always interested in
>> learning about the alternatives, particularly Specify. Thanks!
>>
>>
>>
>> Tom
>>
>>
>>
>> __________________
>>
>> Thomas J. Trombone
>>
>> Data Manager
>>
>> Division of Vertebrate Zoology - Ornithology
>>
>> American Museum of Natural History
>>
>> Central Park West @ 79th Street
>>
>> New York, NY 10024-5192
>>
>> Phone: (212) 313-7783
>>
>> Email: trombone at amnh.org
>>
>> URL: https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__research.amnh.org_ornithology_&d=AwIFaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=z7Qo_ufelFNN-andM8YuVcOMHeswaYuyEbJqJ3dQNmg&s=2iUVEvjmbJwD1TDWaRux754w_a5y56CeooyXIvDVQvk&e= 
>>
>>
>>
>> *From:* nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu [mailto:
>> nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu] *On Behalf Of *angie thompson
>> *Sent:* Friday, 02 October 2015 9:52 AM
>> *To:* NHColl
>> *Subject:* Re: [Nhcoll-l] Has anyone had experience using Specify as
>> electronic museum management system?
>>
>>
>>
>> Lien,
>>
>>
>>
>> My lab has used Specify database for years. I love it. Everything is
>> *finally* in one database - there's a table for scanning and attaching
>> accession paperwork and permits, a table for publications so you can easily
>> link specimens to their citation history, all of our loans are 'in' and we
>> can quickly find who is coming due. Use of authority tables and 'trees'
>> that tie to lookup fields cuts down on misspellings, and helps keep
>> mistakes down to a mild roar (our original database has issues with people
>> putting data into the wrong field, such as in the taxon field, they would
>> put 'Jurassic').
>>
>>
>>
>> It's a complex thing but it's worth it. We make extensive use of wikis to
>> train people, as well as to provide them with a quick reference. (wikis
>> [dot] utexas [dot] edu/display/specify6/Specify+Database)
>>
>>
>>
>> Finding the information you need is really quick, too. It's been a
>> learning curve, of course, but we can now generate reports that count
>> number of specimens per locality, how many research loans vs. outreach
>> loans for any given year, and so on. It's nice having good tools to look at
>> the collections with, but it's also a great help for gathering statistical
>> data about how the collection is *used*.
>>
>>
>>
>> I find one of the biggest drawbacks is how hard it is to change
>> information once it's in the database. If data got added incorrectly, or
>> even if you just want to refine some information, in many cases each record
>> has to be edited individually. An example would be if a taxa is split, with
>> some saying with the original genus but others getting reassigned. In this
>> case, you would have to first update the taxon 'tree', then open *only* the
>> records that are getting reassigned and edit each of them. Sure, it's a
>> small thing, but if you have a lot to do then it gets really tedious and
>> time consuming. The silver lining is if *all* the specimens get reassigned,
>> you just edit the 'tree' and the individual records tied to that entry all
>> change (this features comes with its own dangers, though!).
>>
>>
>>
>> Hope this helps. Feel free to contact me if you have other questions.
>>
>>
>>
>> Angie
>>
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Oct 1, 2015 at 6:37 AM, Huong Lien Tran <huong.tran at uq.net.au>
>> wrote:
>>
>> Hi all,
>>
>>
>>
>> I am posting for my colleague who is working in natural history
>> collection management. Currently her museum in Vietnam is looking to
>> digitise their current specimens collections and is looking for an
>> affordable management system. We've done some research and found that the
>> common ones like KEmu or Vernon are a bit too expensive for their museum to
>> handle. We've come upon Specify (
>> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__specifyx.specifysoftware.org_specify7_&d=AwIFaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=z7Qo_ufelFNN-andM8YuVcOMHeswaYuyEbJqJ3dQNmg&s=nNK7ybec09NdMdOUoFex9dyVqQlU0Q0ujYIyI0gI4B8&e= 
>> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__specifyx.specifysoftware.org_specify7_&d=AwMFaQ&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=InDsYKRaBducE-o3tDKHCN6uuQ0o7Lm03va1z7qaUrM&s=HI7xEF19TJNrx5S6GJap8u-oro_8dmJyrNXJhL5-zis&e=>)
>> and it seems to be very good in the prospect of having local technicians
>> handling the development and maintenance the database, keeping the cost at
>> affordable level. Nevertheless, we would really want to have some insights
>> from professionals who had experience with Specify. Are there any pitfalls
>> we should look for? Or maybe a contact points where we can get help when
>> using Specify?
>>
>>
>>
>> Thanks You,
>>
>>
>>
>> Lien
>>
>>
>>
>>
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