Bringing Science to the World Museum Victoria Natural Science Collections Online 2008 EMu Users’ Meeting, Wellington, New Zealand Alex Chubaty, Collection Information Systems

Introduction 2006 – collections on Intranet (‘Musenet’) History and Technology collection Data preparation Field mapping Features: Keyword and Advanced Searches Tagging Recently viewed images Search filters Related records based on Classification, Subjects/Keywords, Collection Name Over 385,000 records

Advanced Search interface (partial) for MV History & Technology collections on ‘Musenet’, with search term

Natural Sciences on Musenet Field Mapping Search and Display Fields and Records Data preparation Consistency (Taxonomy module) Format standardisation Data validation Common names Basic Features Keyword and Advanced Searches Tagging Recently viewed images

Advanced Search interface (partial) for MV Natural Sciences collections on ‘Musenet’

Search returns and display Individual records plus links via scientific name Custom made ‘summary data’ Search filters Taxonomy Locality Mapping facility Species Specimen

Mapping Functionality Google Maps vs KE Maps Installation and support Public familiarity Google technology improvements Google Earth/Google Maps

Natural Sciences live on the web On Musenet - Oct 2007 Live from MV website – Nov disciplines Over 883,000 records Example searches

Later Features Added Mapping at single specimen level Browse function – 3 broad levels Vernacular names added Search engine optimisation Improved search speed and search matching

Features To Be Released or Tested Species level results as first results Location based searches Display vernacular names more frequently Image browser

Statistics from Google Analytics 1 Jan – 30 Aug ,427 visits from 147 countries 21,408 visitors 4.77 pages per visit Average of 2.04 minutes spent Popular keywords: kunatite paxillosida: luidiidae austronomia

Source of Traffic Google – 80% Referring sites – 10% Direct traffic – 10%

Conclusions Genuine interest in MV’s scientific collections Increased public awareness of MV as a holder and custodian of legacy data sets Increased public awareness of the scope and size of our collections

The Future History and Technology’s ‘Web Readiness’ project Indigenous Cultures discussing strategies Major part of MV’s online strategy Digitisation Public access Storage

Where? com.auhttp://collections.museumvictoria. com.au

Acknowledgements Craig Churchill Collection System Specialist Online Development Ken Walker Deputy Head Sciences (Terrestrial Zoology)