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.