EMu and the Natural Sciences at Museum Victoria Dermot A. Henry Manager, Natural Science Collections...

EMu and the Natural Sciences

at Museum Victoria

Dermot A. Henry

Manager, Natural Science Collections

Museum Victoria, Melbourne

Thanks yous!

• Entomology: Ken Walker, Kristy

Hoath, Sarah McCaffrey, Peter

Lillywhite, Catriona McPhee.

• Terrestrial Vertebrates: Wayne

Longmore & Rory O’Brien

• EMu team: Nancy Ladas & Alex

Chubaty

Museum Victoria

• Museum of

Natural Sciences,

Indigenous

Studies, Social

History, and

History of Science

& Technology

Museum Victoria• 1854 National Museum of

Victoria

• 1986 Amalgamation of the Science Museum of Victoria and the National Museum of Victoria

• 2000 Melbourne Museum opened

• Immigration Museum and Scienceworks

This talk…

• Introduction to MV Natural Science

collections & EMu

• Some recent EMu projects

• Web outputs

The collections: The real thing!

Collections

• Diverse collections of zoological and geological specimens which underpin MV Research

• Research conducted by MV Research Curators, CMs, associates, students etc

• Providing access to collections to facilitate other researchers (from within Australia and overseas)

• Distilling the stories from research for the general public, eg exhibitions, public programs

• Promoting science

Natural Science collections

• Over 15 million

specimens

• 3.2 million

collection

management units

• 1,061,706 units on

database

Natural Science collections

• Reference e.g. Types

• Systematics

• Diversity reflecting

morphological

differences,

geographic

distributions etc

History of EMu• 1982 Museum obtains

Titan/Texpress

• 1996 Commence

development of EMu

• 2000 Commencement of

transfer of Texpress to

EMu

• 2007 Completion 48

individual Texpress

databases transferred!

History of EMu• Natural Sciences had

some resistance to Emu − preference for flat screen approach of Texpress

• Over time, changing mindset − viewing EMu as data management tool not solely a collection management tool

Registration Project• ≈ 2004 an explosion in the need to electronically register

data at specimen level for research-based and other biodiversity mapping initiatives

• Examples include:

• MV’s Bioinformatics and Pest and Diseases Images Library web projects

• International Global Biodiversity Information Resource and Australian Zoological Collections Online. Atlas of Living Australia

• Specific external research initiatives which have provided funding for MV to register collections

• MV needed to reassess baseline registration methodologies to meet this need

Registration project• Overcome the

mindset that the collections were too big to register

• Over 15 million specimens

• 3.2 million collection management units

• Acknowledge the ‘risk management’ value of registrations.

Registration project

• Commenced 2004-2005

• Acknowledgement that increased registration

rates are not possible with current staffing

resources in collections

• Purpose: to register the majority of the State

Collections, including a substantial backlog of

unregistered collection material

• ‘Backlog’ considered to be material acquired

before 2004

Registration project

• Tackle smallest collections first

• Define a tight minimum dataset

• Do not attempted to exhaustively capture all

information

• Enhance data appropriately (eg latitudes

and longitudes to facilitate mapping projects

Registration Project• 2004/5 Recruited 3

‘specialist’ registration officers

• Additional funding acquired from Entomology grant funds − employed 3 additional staff

• Tackle smallest collections first and specific subsets of Entomology

• First year approximately 98,000 records

Zoology: Fish

• Approximately 430,100 specimens

• Stored as 44,000 lots

• 2004/5 completed approx 11,000 records

captured

Zoology: Herpetology

Vertebrate

• 77,000 specimens

• 3,000 records

captured

Zoology: Birds

• 73,000 specimens

• Skins, mounts, skeletons, eggs and nests

• Approximately 5,000 captured. Egg collection excluded

Zoology: Mammals

• Approximately 40,000

specimens

• Skeletons, skins and

display mounts

• 8,000 captured

Trichoptera data Google mapping

• 70 000

records

Trichoptera data. Google mapping

Registration Project

• Approximately 1/3 of NS Collections data

captured. Individual disciplines completed:

• Birds, Mammals and Herpetology

• Ichthyology

• Natural Science art

• Mineralogy, Meteorites, Tektites

• Subsets of large collections of Marine

invertebrates and Entomology collections

Registration Project

• Averaging 74,000 NS records per year to June 2010. Cost of approximately $2.35 per record

• Increased data set from 615,638to 1,061,706

• Demonstrated that, with appropriate funding, major inroads to the backlog could be achieved

Palaeontology collections• Approximately 4 million

samples

• 250,000 vertebrates

• 100,000 plants

• 3.5 million invertebrates

• 14,000 Type specimens

• Palynology slides from Victorian oil wells

Palaeontology registration

• Setting priorities

• Capture all

paper

registered

specimens

Tissue Bank

• Registration

and barcoding

of samples

Entomology Type project• 2.5 million specimens

• 20,000 Type specimens (approx 3,500 ‘dry’ primary types)

• Largest aquatic insect collection in Australia

Entomology Type project• 3-year project to

image capture approximately 3,500 primary types

• Reduce the need to transport fragile specimens for loans

Entomology Type project• Employed specialist staff

to take high resolution

images using

multilayering techniques

and computer

combination of images

• Up to 60 images per a

final view. Detailed depth

of view

• Next iteration will allow

use of ‘zoomify’ on Web

to see detail

Entomology Type project

Entomology Type project

Entomology Type project

• 2952 types

completed into

Emu

Entomology Type project

• Available on

Web

Entomology Type project

• Has increased

requests for info on

Types but often high

res images are suffice

Bird egg registration and image capture project.

• Set priorities for

staff – free them

up!

• Set targets

• Include image

capture of all

specimens

Egg registration

Egg registration

• 20,000 clutches

• Data entry

completed in 2

years

• Data set suitable

for development of

egg identification

website

McCann image collection • Acquired November 2009

• Ian McCann was a keen wildlife and botanical photographer

• Amassed a collection in excess of 20,000 35 mm Kodachrome slides

• Many published images

McCann image collection • Ian McCann passed away

in July 2003. His family were keen for his collection to go to appropriate institutions for not-for-profit use

• July 2009, Museum acquired zoological image component – 5,400 images mainly Victorian fauna, approx 300 to 400 families

McCann image collection

• 1450: Reptiles and amphibians

• 980: Mammals

McCann image collection

• 1860: Birds

• 400: Insect, Crustaceans, Molluscs, worms and Butterflies

• 690: Spiders

McCann image collection • All slides catalogued in

EMu

• All slides digitised (high

resolution)

• All images attached to

slide catalogue record

and to taxonomic records

Red-capped Robin (male)

McCann image collection

McCann image collection

Catalogue and taxonomy modules

McCann image taxonomy module

Coral snake

McCann image collection

• Available on the

web via the

taxonomic

module

• Fantastic on

line resource!

Collections on-line

• Redevelopment of

Science and Life

Galleries completed

in Oct 2010

• Collections on-line

priority for 2010 /

2011 for Natural

Sciences

Promoting access

• Data available via

other search engines.

• OZCAM

• GBIF

• Atlas of living

Australia

• Atlas of Life

BioinformaticsDistribution – space and timeAuthenticated data

BioinformaticsDistribution – vegetation

Bioinformatics

• Leasing of data to

other Agencies

• Ability to provide

data in a format

required

Promoting access: Online

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Promoting access : Online

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Promoting access

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Promoting access

Data enhancement

Narratives for target websites

Conclusions• Providing access is core business

• Pressure to make collections more accessible via on line processes

• Acknowledge the importance of datasets and fund appropriately

• Set registration priorities

• Effective and efficient means of data enhancement

• Make available on-line through raw and filtered data methods for a range of users.