Date post: | 13-Nov-2014 |
Category: |
Education |
Upload: | ecnofficer |
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John T. LonginoDepartment of BiologyThe University of Utah
Keep the cash flowing: specimens as currency
The Goal:
To have the most objects before you die
To learn about the world by examining objects
To acquire disparate kinds of data from objects and keep them linked
The Good Old Days:
Pros: science got done
Cons: I had to capture data; no easy way to attach data to individual specimens; writing lots of little determination labels
The Good Old Days:
The Problems:Need for unique identifiers
JTL
INBio
sp3 JTLMCZ 2007
ident deposited det by det date
sp1 JTLJTL 2001
MCZ sp4 SCMCZ 2009
AntWeb BOLD
The Problems:
Conflation of unique identifiers and ownership labels
The Problems:Separation of research and artifact preservation functions in big museums
Mound, L. A. 2012. The Natural History Museum re-visited. Antenna 36:195-200."Caring for the physical well-being of collections is ... increasingly an end in itself, and commonly determines its own priorities. Moreover, these priorities quickly become separated from priorities for the creation of ideas and knowledge for which collections have been amassed."
The Solutions:
Treat unique identifiers like insect pins
The Solutions:Use existing specimen identifiers
Insuring uniqueness?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globally_unique_identifier
MUEUI: Unique in the Entomological Universe Identifier
Institution blind unique identifiers?
The Solutions:Use the specimen identifiers
The Solutions:
Outsource data capture to borrowers
http://www.si.edu/Collections
http://entomology.si.edu
Are insects a special case?
http://www.gadling.com/2010/03/26/airlines-losing-3000-bags-every-hour-of-every-day
I would rather excel in the knowledge of what is excellent, than in the extent of my power and possessions.