Or how to make 11=1

Dr Penny Berents

Australian Museum EMu Project

Background

databasing of collections began in early 1980s with vertebrate collections

TITAN first databases were identical but as the

years went by Collection Managers modified their database(s)

in 2000 the AM had 11 collection databases in Texpress on 4 servers

AM collection databases

Birds Fishes Herpetology Mammals Marine Invertebrates Tissue

Insects Minerals Molluscs Palaeontology Spiders

Step one

Choice of software KE EMu or something else? how much could we combine with AM

Anthropology EMu database ?

whose version of EMu ? American versions – AMNH, NMNH ? Australian natural history users ? AM Anthropology ?

our limited knowledge of product architecture and functionality before commencing customisation

data free software

.

We analysed all collections for individual needs before customising Catalogue and before migrating any data

which modules?

Catalogue, Taxonomy, Sites, Collecting Events, Parties, Loans, Movements, Bibliography, Multimedia, Locations

Latitude and Longitude

Registration numbers and IRNs

.

Salinity data not displayed with float data

.

EMu logins Registry settings

.

EMu logins Registry settings standard environments for EMu

.

EMu logins Registry settings standard environments for EMu mapping fields from Texpress to EMu

.

EMu logins Registry settings standard environments for EMu mapping fields from Texpress to EMu data mapping benchmarks

establishing load benchmarks for testing each collection after the load

establishing load benchmarks for testing each collection after the load

range queries

establishing load benchmarks for testing each collection after the load

range queries SQS (simple query screen)

establishing load benchmarks for testing each collection after the load

range queries SQS (simple query screen) keeping track of different datasets at

varying stages of implementation

.

storage locations

.

storage locations issue registration

histories

histories taxon/ type of

histories taxon/ type of Help/Manuals/Training

4 datasets loaded and operational Marine Invertebrates, Herpetology, Birds

& Spiders Mammals loaded to ‘test’ database Mapping underway for next datasets due to finish migrating all datasets by

end 2004

Where are we up to?