Collection Level Data Collection Level Data ProblemsProblems

Collection Level Data Collection Level Data ProblemsProblems

…… & Suggestions for Avoiding Them& Suggestions for Avoiding Them

“Metadata” Sources

• NNs use different styles to enter data in their collection level database (Nodit etc.)

• How can we preserve the clarity and uniformity of data so that users can easily locate the information they are searching for?

• BioCase data is provided by NNs all over Europe.

Data Structure• Capture the hierarchical structure of your

organizations and collections.

– Enter organization information in the database (Nodit etc.), and then enter the collections that belong to it.

–For every organization, specify its type and the number of collections it contains.

Data Structure II• Do not enter “orphan” collections.

“Orphan” collections are collections that are not connected to an organization parent.

• Unsure how to classify an organization? Nodit has a list of organization classes!

Data Structure III

• The Nodit list includes “independent expert”, “voluntary observer”, and “other” so you can even create organizations for collections that belong to individuals.

• There is no need to ever enter standalone collections.

Data Structure IV• Even if an organization only contains a single

collection, enter them as 2 separate records.

XXX Herbarium

Organization

XXX Herbarium Collection

Collection

• Add the word “collection” to collection names if not already there. Ex – “algae collection” rather than simply “algae”.

Free Text Fields• Use English wherever possible in

addition to other languages.

• Avoid notes that the indexing tool cannot decipher.

“For details see URL”, “data still incomplete ”, “unknown”.

• Keep data in their proper fields.

Town: “Jerusalem 92542”

Town: “Jerusalem”; Zip: “92542”

Keywords

• Longer free text descriptions such as a collection’s description, access restrictions, and purpose are helpful to users viewing full result sets.

• However, searches use keywords to locate results.

• Use keywords correctly so that searches locate your collections!

Keyword Tips

• Keep keywords content-specific.

“All” for taxon, geographic, timeperiod

“world” or “worldwide” for geographic

• Sometimes you may want to add some keywords to help a collection be located.

“Kenya”… && … “Africa”

“musci”… && … “plantae”

Keywords Tips II

• Only use a single term for each keyword. Do not combine entries with “and” or “,”.

“Butterflies and moths”

“fungi, lichens, algae”

Enter a separate keyword for each word.

Keywords Tips III

• Using dates for time-period keywords:

“last 300 years” or “18th century” or “about 1900”

Use: “1975” “1700-1800” “1975+” “2000-”

• If you are unsure of the exact year then estimate a brief interval.

Data Quality Reporting• A automatic mechanism for reporting data

quality problems to NNs is being developed.