1. Arctos/TACC Collaboration Chris Jordan Texas Advanced Computing Center

2. Arctos: A 15 year history
MVZ: Hired Stan Blum to develop relational data model (following modeling by Assoc. Systematic Collections).
MVZ: Hired John Wieczorek to implement model (desktop application) using Sybase and Versata. Partial implementation (e.g., no loans).
UAM: John W. migrated mammal data to Oracle, set up Versata.
UAM: Dusty McDonald replaced Versata with ColdFusion, implemented full model (first web-based instance, aka Arctos).
MSB: 2003 – Joined Arctos at UAM (first multi-hosting instance).
MVZ and MCZ: Implemented separate instances of Arctos at Berkeley and Harvard (MVZ: first Postgres, then Oracle).
MVZ: Moved hosting of data to Alaska (Virtual Private Database version).

3. Major repositories using the Arctos database:
(34 collections of specimens or observations, 1.3M records)

4. TACC and TeraGrid 10-year history of Research Cyberinfrastructure
Supercomputing, Visualization and Storage
Supported by NSF to provide research resources
TACC expansion of Data-focused support
1 Petabyte dedicated online disk
10 Petabytes offline archive
National network of replication resources

5. Data Diversity at TACC Image Collections (Natural History, Art, etc)
Structured Data (Economics, Public Health)
BioMolecular Data (DNA, RNAseq, etc)
Physical Sciences/Simulation Data
Geographic data (Climate, Disaster Preparedness)
Integrated Infrastructure Supports Diverse Collections

6. A versatile online collections management system
Arctos is…
A versatile online collections management system
Cataloged Items (ID, attributes, parts, etc.; batch uploading, downloading, editing; encumbrances)
Localities & Collecting Events (mapping, media, history)
Transactions (loans, accessions, borrows, permits; reminders)
Usage (publications, projects, sponsors, GenBank)
Curatorial (object tracking, parts, condition, relations, etc.)
Determination history (identification, georef, attributes)
All the usual stuff that every museum DB-ish creation does in one manner or another.

7. Breadth of Data in Arctos
Fish, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, birds and bird eggs/nests, plants, arthropods, fossils, molluscs
Specimens and observations
Media (images, audio)
Publications, fieldnotes
Arctos constantly evolving to incorporate new kinds of data, e.g.,:
Better representation of non-publication documents (fieldnotes, correspondence)
Cultural collections (art, anthropology...)
Nearly all that is known about an object (or observation) can be included in Arctos.

8. Arctos/TACC Partnership
Arctos hosts web/database resources
TACC hosts media collections
Images, Recordings, etc
Simple workflows for automated generation of thumbnails, JPG versions, MP3s, OCR
Replication policies automatically replicate to various storage locations
Images directly served from TACC to browsers

9. Arctos/TACC History Initial work with UAF Herbarium in 2008
Brought on MVZ Collections in 2009
Ongoing work on web audio, OCR
New collections from UAF, UNM, others
Currently >300,000 digital objects under management
Support >100,000 downloads of original scans each year

10. Advantages for Collections
Lower cost and management overhead
Highly reliable, large-scale infrastructure
No scalability issues
Longer-term partnerships promote technical collaboration to add capabilities over time
Provides built-in “Data Management Plan”

11. Long-Term Sustainability
TACC plan is to be a permanent research data resource
Arctos will evolve over time but the collections have permanent value
Infrastructure foundation is stable
Agency funding future is uncertain
Develop diverse funding sources and models to support robust, long-term operation

12. Ongoing Efforts
Expansion of storage resources at TACC (~10PB online disk)
Greater engagement in data management activities
Working with BRC, ADBC awards and associated data
iPlant Data/Genetic resources – link to specimen records?

13. Thanks for your Time Steffi Ickert-Bond, UAF Gordon Jarrell, UNM
Carla Cicero, MVZ
Michelle Koo, MVZ
Dusty Mcdonald, Arctos