EMu MODULE MATTERS Collection events and Sites To merge or not to merge……. Dianne J Bray Museum Victoria Melbourne, Australia

Currently at MV Faunal disciplines use Collection Events and Sites – tailored with aquatic and terrestrial defaults and relevant tabs Geological and Palaeontological disciplines attach Site records directly to the Catalogue – do not use Collection Events

Issues Sites module contains descriptive tabs & fields which change over time – eg. in Port Phillip Bay, seagrass plentiful in Summer, but may be very sparse in winter Mapping Tab – no GIS fields, UTM fields inadequate, latitude and longitude coordinate fields not as precise as gps data Geology and Palaeontology attach Site records directly to the Catalogue –need to develop Site profiles (ie. mine site, mineral deposit site, fossil site, faunal survey site) and link Catalogue records, relevant images, narratives, research papers etc. to a single site record –however, agree that we need to collect precise and detailed locality data

Sites Module – Aquatic tab (additional aquatic tabs in Collection Events module) Marine, estuarine, freshwater descriptors – not fixed for certain sites – eg. salinity in coastal embayments changes over time, as does species composition

Sites Module – Aquatic tab (additional aquatic tabs in Collection Events module) Marine epifauna collected from marine algae – where should data which refers to algal host reside ?? ….....OR …..in Collection Events??

Elevation data included here – whereas aquatic depth data resies in Collection Events

Collection Events module – Aquatic 1 tab Collection depth & bottom depth data

Collection Events module – Aquatic 2 tab Additional aquatic data

Sites Module - Terrestrial tab Vegetation is not fixed over time (no additional terrestrial tabs in Collection Events) At any given site, for example, an insect or reptile may be collected from a single plant – where should that information reside??

Issues Sites module contains descriptive tabs & fields which change over time – eg. in Port Phillip Bay, seagrass plentiful in Summer, but may be very sparse in winter Mapping Tab – no GIS fields, UTM fields inadequate, latitude and longitude coordinate fields not as precise as gps data Geology and Palaeontology do not use Collection Events and attach Site records directly to the Catalogue –develop Site profiles (ie. mine site, mineral deposit site, fossil site, faunal survey site) and link Catalogue records, relevant images, narratives, research papers etc. to a single site record –however, agree that we need to collect precise and detailed locality data

Sites Module - Mapping tab – no MV tailoring

Issues Sites module contains descriptive tabs & fields which change over time – eg. in Port Phillip Bay, seagrass plentiful in Summer, but may be very sparse in winter Mapping Tab – no GIS fields, UTM fields inadequate, latitude and longitude coordinate fields not as precise as gps data Geology and Palaeontology do not use Collection Events but attach Site records directly to the Catalogue –develop Site profiles (ie. mine site, mineral deposit site, fossil site, faunal survey site) and link Catalogue records, relevant images, narratives, research papers etc. to a single site record –however, agree that we need to collect precise and detailed locality data

Sites module – Era Tab

Sites module – Notes tab

Sites module – Object tab

Sites module – Multimedia tab

NMNH (Smithsonian) solution Have collapsed Sites into Collection Events – are yet to go live with merged version, but departments all excited about the merger Anna Weitzman NMNH

NMNH solution

NMNH

Options Remove all habitat fields from Sites Module? What about altitude fields – move to Collection Events (where aquatic depth resides)? Follow NMNH model? Merge modules and use Site code then Site number for each collection event at a particular site Merge modules, but develop Parent/children Site tabs –Parent site record – attach data, images, references pertaining to an overall site (eg. a mine, faunal survey site) - include link to bibliography module on Parent for attachment of Site references Utilise EMu Users group to find natural history solution - reach agreement on common goals ???????????????????????

Thanks to: Anna Weitzman NMNH Joanna McCaffrey FMNH Tom Trombone AMNH Marion Raiser NMH Penny Berents AM MV colleagues