NYBG + KE EMu

The New York Botanical Garden+

KE EMu

Melissa Tulig

Botanical Information Management

NYBG + KE EMu

NYBG + KE EMu

2002: search for a database begins• Herbarium specimen database (600,000 records)• Taxonomy, geography, person authority files• 25 separate curator specimen databases (dbase,

Access, Excel)• Index Herbariorum• 2 Herbarium loans applications • Index to American Botanical Literature (Access)• Structured Use data (Economic Botany)• 10,000 Bulk Sample collections (with vouchered

herbarium specimens)• 100,000 specimen images

NYBG + KE EMu

user needs• 50 daily concurrent users - full-time staff

plus interns, volunteers, grad students

• Different permissions for individual users or groups of users

• Record-level security on certain record types

• Instant web access to the live database for online users

NYBG + KE EMu

technical staff

• IT department of 4 people for 400 Garden employees

• No programmers

NYBG + KE EMu

options

• Develop software in-house

• Use free software for specimen database, build applications for other data sets

• Purchase Digital Asset Management software for images

• Purchase a customizable system to do it all

NYBG + KE EMu

the winner is…EMu• Object-oriented database comprised of various

“modules” for data entry• Registry Module: view, edit, insert and delete

rights settings based by user, group, module, or field

• Lookup Lists Module: allows you to standardize any look up list, keep them locked or open to users to edit

• Audit Module: track all changes made by users and reverse any edits

NYBG + KE EMu

Catalogue Moduleherbarium specimens,Bulk Samples, Use data

Taxonomy Modulescientific names, synonymy, descriptions

Sites Modulegeographic data and georeferencing fields

Collection Events field book data

Loans/Movements tracks all herbarium loans & shipments

Bibliography citations from IABL

Multimedia Module images

Parties Moduleperson authority files and Index Herbariorum

NYBG + KE EMu

have a look

NYBG + KE EMu

NYBG + KE EMu

web interface

• Integrated web interface directly to our live EMu database via PHP

• Added Google Maps and the FSI Viewer

• All edits to records and new records and images go live instantly (but this can be controlled by user)

• Multiple interfaces and designs to different modules for different projects

NYBG + KE EMu

that was 2005, this is now

• Import data as csv or xml, new import appends data to existing records

• Export data as text, spreadsheets• Export formatted reports directly from Emu via

Crystal Reports (specimen label, loans invoices)• DarwinCore backend fields• Record Templates – using it for bulk data entry

of fieldbooks and barcode sequences

NYBG + KE EMu

EMu natural history users• Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History• Natural History Museum, London• Museum Victoria• Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney• American Museum of Natural History• Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale • Field Museum

NYBG + KE EMu

positives

• KE will create whatever you want them to create• You receive all modules and we constantly find

new uses for ones we didn’t originally use– Two weeks ago we started tracking Herbarium visitors

in Emu and publishing weekly visitor reports

• Receive all new features – Record Templates • User Support – if anything breaks, you call KE

and they fix it.

NYBG + KE EMu

negatives

• KE will create whatever you want them to create

• Large up-front cost (depending on customization) and yearly maintenance fees by number of user licenses

• Steep learning curve

NYBG + KE EMu

collections management to research management

• DNA Aliquots, Tissue Samples, Structural Botany collections (linked to vouchered herbarium specimens)

• Use data from the Institute of Economic Botany

• Electronic floras and monographs with separate web interfaces

NYBG + KE EMu

not just for herbarium sheets anymore

NYBG + KE EMu

a day in the life of NYBG & EMu• Incoming shipment from the field logged in movements module• Staff enter specimen records using fieldbook template• Tissue samples catalogued, linked to voucher specimen and sent to lab• Labels for herbarium specimens and tissue collections printed from EMu• Gifts for determination are sent to other institutions and tracked in loans

module• Determinations are returned and entered in the catalogue• Determined specimens are mounted, barcoded, imaged (instantly in the VH)

and filed in the herbarium• Digital images from the field mass imported to Emu, linked to specimen

record if imaged before pressed or linked to species record• Descriptions of species added to floras module• DNA Aliquots are made from collected tissue samples, published in

research papers• GenBank IDs are added to EMu

NYBG + KE EMu

new features for next release

• Export data formatted for ArcExplorer

• OpenLayers mapping

• IMu - KE's new web interface– XML>XSLT> HTML– Display of results from multiple modules– Customisable interface via XSLT

NYBG + KE EMu

today• 1.3 million specimen records• 360,000 taxonomy authority files• 340,000 images• 80,000 person files (authors, collectors,

determiners)• 15,000 IH records• 200,000 bibliographic records• 10,000 DNA Aliquot &Tissue Sample records• 21,000 loans (265 e-loans)• 20 electronic floras & monographs projects