[Nhcoll-l] ANSP mollusk images and data and how to find them

[Callomon,Paul]

(With apologies for cross-postings):

Folks,

Many of you have been asking "Where is the Academy of Natural Sciences mollusk database now?" Here's the answer.

Since the beginning of 2025, the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University in Philadelphia (ANSP) has been migrating all its specimen data and images onto cloud-based servers. This off-site storage and access model for institutional data is increasingly becoming a standard, allowing institutional IT departments to focus on development of collections databases and other such things instead of constantly building new servers and trying to protect priceless data from threats.

The ANSP Malacology collection was previously searchable via a dedicated web interface that is now gone. Now, however, all our data and images are instead searchable on GBIF (the Global Biodiversity Information Facility) at www.gbif.org<http://www.gbif.org>

Here's how to use it:


  *   If you use any previous link you had saved to the ANSP Malacology collection or go via www.ansp.org<http://www.ansp.org> you will find yourself on a page ( http://ans-collections.ansp.org/#ansp_mal ) with all ANSP collections listed. Under "Mollusks (Malacology)" click on "GBIF Malacology Collection." This will take you directly to our part of the GBIF site.
  *   Alternatively, if you go to GBIF using www.gbif.org<http://www.gbif.org>, then click on "Datasets" and under "search" enter "Malacology Collection at the Academy of Natural Sciences." This will auto-fill after you type a certain number of letters.
  *   Both routes will bring you to the GBIF dataset for ANSP Malacology.
  *   You can now search the collection. Click on the green "Occurrences" button (which also has the current number of records, so "510,384 Occurences" right now; this number will grow as we continue to catalog material)  and in the following screen use the "search all fields" box at top left to search by family, genus, species, author, catalog number or any other criterion that GBIF uses.
  *   If the specimen(s) you are looking for have images, these will be shown in a palette. Click on any of them to get a bigger view, with a nice stepless magnifier. These are pretty clear .jpeg renderings. If you need the original hi-res images for publication or examination, just email me or Kasey Seizova kns63 at drexel.edu<mailto:kns63 at drexel.edu> and we'll send them along.
  *   If your search returns a dataset containing multiple records, such as a search for a genus or family, you can download it via the "download" button once you are logged in as a GBIF user. Registration as a new member is quick and easy, and *HINT* if you are going to download datasets we recommend you register first, as otherwise you might have to repeat your search once you've logged in.
  *   Datasets download as .csv files, which open in Excel and many other spreadsheet programs.

ANSP Malacology data and images are now updated weekly, which is far more frequently than the previous arrangement.

Questions? Email me!

Paul Callomon
Collection Manager, Malacology and General Invertebrates
________________________________
Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, Philadelphia
callomon at ansp.org<mailto:callomon at ansp.org> Tel 215-405-5096 - Fax 215-299-1170


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