[Nhcoll-l] Digital objects vs. physical objects in collection management databases and how to manage them

[Bentley, Andrew Charles]

Hi all

I am trying to resolve a philosophical conundrum brought on by the ever-increasing mountain of digital data being produces from and associated with natural history collections.  My question is whether digital representations of an object (images, CT scans, etc.) should be treated as preparations of an object in a collections database similar to other physical preparations or treated differently?  For instance, in a fish collection like mine, you have a lot that has a certain number of specimens.  Some of those may be subsequently cleared and stained or have skeletons prepared.  These are traditionally handled as preparations of the original lot with the same catalog number (although in some collections they are treated as separate catalog numbers).  Now, however, you have digital representations of those physical objects such as images, CT scans, etc.  Should these also be treated as preparations or be treated differently - as digital products or linked as attachments to the physical objects?  To me, they are not physical objects but digital representations of the original object.  As such, they are somewhat different to a preparation.  This has implications when totaling traditional counts of objects in a collection as well as when publishing data from a collection to the aggregator community.  In some instances, this may be governed by the data model and business rules of the CMS you are using or by your personal preference.

I would be interested in hearing your views on this and how you handle this in your collection as I am not sure there is any community consensus as to which way to handle these.  I have heard of both methods being used in various collections.

Thanks in advance

Andy

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Andy Bentley
Ichthyology Collection Manager
University of Kansas
Biodiversity Institute
Dyche Hall
1345 Jayhawk Boulevard
Lawrence, KS, 66045-7561
USA

Tel: (785) 864-3863
Fax: (785) 864-5335
Email: abentley at ku.edu<mailto:abentley at ku.edu>
http://ichthyology.biodiversity.ku.edu<http://ichthyology.biodiversity.ku.edu/>

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