1. Introducing CollectionSpace
A collection management system and foundation for research
Hoffman, Christopher R.,
Doran, Andrew,
Moe, Richard,
McGrath, Patrick,
Mishler, Brent
University of California, Berkeley

2. Agenda
UC Berkeley’s collection management systems and the BNHM-IST Partnership
Introducing CollectionSpace
How to learn more

3. UC Berkeley’s Collection Management Systems
Specimen Management System for California Herbaria (SMASCH) (University & Jepson Herbaria)
PAHMA Collections (BNHM Consortium, Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology)
SAGE (UC Botanical Garden)
UCMP Specimen Database (BNHM Consortium, UC Museum of Paleontology)
Essig Specimen Database (BNHM Consortium, Essig)
MVZ/Arctos Specimen Database (BNHM Consortium, MVZ)
Biocode Specimen Database (BNHM Consortium)
HERC Specimen Database (BNHM Consortium, HERC)
History of Art Visual Resource Collection (HAVRC) (Department of History of Art)
Slide & Photograph Image Retrieval Online (SPIRO) (Architecture Visual Resources Library)
CineFiles (Pacific Film Archives)
Berkeley Language Center’s Archival Catalog & Circulation System (Berkeley Language Center)
Plus … Bancroft Special Collections and many others
Many collections, from Zoology to Art, many domains…
Centrality of collections to mission. Collections include:
Historical and cultural artifacts, specimens from many life science domains, VRCs from art history, etc., archival materials
Across museums, archives, research, and faculty collections
Here we show a list that is primarily but by no means exclusively Museums. Boundaries are fuzzy.

4. 25 Year Technology Legacy
Campus supports a broad range of collections, from Art to Zoology, but …
Too many aging legacy systems
Millions of objects, artifacts, specimens
Managed in about 20 different collection management systems
Running on about 15 hardware platforms
Maintained by about 10 different technology groups, with various degrees of technical experience
Inconsistent decision-making
Insufficient and inadequate funding models in a time when university funding is challenged
Campus-wide enterprise picture
Does this sound familiar?

5. BNHM-IST Partnership
Partnership formed between a consortium of natural history museums and central information technology provider to take on this problem
Becoming a model for broader campus collections planning and decision-making
BNHM is a leader in biodiversity collections-based research and has built or partnered in numerous systems and partnerships: Numerous collection management systems, BerkeleyMapper, CalPhotos, BioGeomancer, AmphibiaWeb/OrnisNet. Moorea-Biocode (FIMS, LIMS integration). Also a model for collaboration: Canadensys-UCB, Arctos, Moorea-Biocode, VertNet, and so on.
Informatics Services: MIP + BSCIT, part of IST Data Services, an IT organization created to focus on Data and Content Management Technologies and Services for campus
One of 4 major central IT departments
Both Administration and Research
Strong engagement with e-research & shared services – technically, programmatically

6. Collection Management Systems – the center of a scholarly ecosystem
Taxonomy and Thesauri
Outreach and Data Sharing
Digital Assets and Content
Education
Archives and Libraries
Field Data Collection
Field Station Sensor Network
Exhibitions
Molecular Lab Information Management
Geospatial Services
Collection Management Systems
Hub applications and platforms

7. CollectionSpace is an open/community-source, web-based software application for the description, management, and dissemination of museum collections information – from artifacts and archival materials to exhibitions and storage.
So what is CollectionSpace?

8. CollectionSpace design features
Web-based
Highly customizable
Interoperable
Local or hosted deployments
Communities of practice
A platform for sharing collections information
Designed to address the needs of cultural heritage AND biodiversity natural science collections
What do we like about CollectionSpace? Functionality; business case and sustainability emphasis; technology and architecture
Can support a range of hosting and deployment models, from dedicated servers, to cloud-based virtual machines, to robust data center environments
Designed for small standalone museums and large multi-museum universities
Designed for simple installs by small museums as well as enterprise-wide deployments and custom configurations
From minimal technical support at a museum to enterprises with access to IT professionals.

9. CollectionSpace Sustainability
Focus on sustainability at all levels & scales
Consortial fund-raising
Communities, collaboration, and consortia
Working with vendors and service providers
An emerging foundation-like partnership
Exploring boundaries (libraries, archives, museums)
And beyond higher education
UC Berkeley and CollectionSpace project participating in a wide range of conversations about higher education and research cyberinfrastructure sustainability.

10. Web-Oriented Technology
HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
Open source: Java, MySQL, JBoss, jQuery
Clean, simple URLs + useful data feeds (RESTful APIs)
Web services (REST) and plugin architecture; enable data sharing and interoperability
Services approach allows re-use across multiple domain-specific applications
Accessible: Works great with keyboard and assistive technologies

11. Schema Extension Model
Herbaria
UCJEPS
Anthro-pology
PAHMA
Must support extension, customization
Can add additional information beyond the core set for a given service
Just edit the XML schema for a service to add these – the system manages the rest
By dividing the extensions into two groups, we will facilitate sharing and re-use within sub-domains.
Longer term, if a domain community standardizes their common extension schema, we can then consider adding domain-specific functionality that takes advantage of this.
Schema model for a customized service deployment

12. Future: Publish to Cloud
Current & Existing publishing models for museums using Darwin Core (DwC)
The University and
Jepson Herbaria
DwC
Old/Current Portals:
TAPIR, DiGIR,
ABCD
Future: Publish to Cloud
DwC
Another example of our domain-based approach, this will facilitate data sharing and interoperability. CollectionSpace will have built-in common services for data extracts and interoperability. In our deployments, we are building extensions for natural history collections to accommodate data sharing standards (legacy, emerging, and future).
DwC + + Paleo Extension
DwC
+ Cultural Extension

13. Sample Mapping between Darwin Core (DwC), CollectionSpace, and University & Jepson Herbaria
DwC Description
catalogNumber
object_number
accession.accession_id
An identifier (preferably unique) for the record within the data set or collection.
institutionCode
collectionCode
responsible_department
i.inst_name
The name (or acronym) in use by the institution having custody of the object(s) or information referred to in the record. ?
The name, acronym, coden, or initialism identifying the collection or data set from which the record was derived.
decimalLatitude
field_loc_lat_decimal
accession.loc_lat_decimal
The geographic latitude (in decimal degrees, using the spatial reference system given in geodeticDatum) of the geographic center of a Location. Positive values are north of the Equator, negative values are south of it. Legal values lie between -90 and 90, inclusive.
decimalLongitude
field_loc_long_decimal
accession.loc_long_decimal
The geographic longitude (in decimal degrees, using the spatial reference system given in geodeticDatum) of the geographic center of a Location. Positive values are east of the Greenwich Meridian, negative values are west of it. Legal values lie between -180 and 180, inclusive.
year month day
field_collection_date_earliest
accession.early_jdate (calc)
The four-digit year, month, or day in which the Event occurred, according to the Common Era Calendar.
And so on… …
DwC
Univ. & Jepson
Herbaria
This slide demonstrates how during our schema mapping and data migration planning, we are modeling a Darwin Core mapping that can be shared across natural history collections (and extended as needed) to support data sharing and interoperability from the core.
Darwin Core and IPT as a framework for data sharing from BNHM deployments of CollectionSpace

14. CollectionSpace Status
CollectionSpace Release 1.0: Summer 2010
Pilot deployments: Ongoing now
CollectionSpace 2.0: July 2010 – November 2011
Goals: Stability, usability, and sustainability
Develop the larger consortium for sustainability
UC Berkeley deployments
Starting with Anthropology (PAHMA) and Herbaria (UCJEPS) collections
Integrated with CollectionSpace 1.1 through 2.0 planning
Documenting our experience and developing templates for other museums
Check with Megan!
CS1:Core procedures: object entry, acquisition, cataloging, loans in, loans out, and retrospective documentation. Vocabulary control, media handling, customization, security, and documentation.
Pilot deployments: Domains from Anthropology to Life Science to Cultural Heritage; Community-driven templates and experience (data migrations…)
CollectionSpace 2.0
Goals: Stability, usability, and sustainability
Expand baseline functionality
- Increase documentation
- Optimize software for service providers
Implement CollectionSpace sustainability plan
Pilots are proceeding already, maximize testing, feedback, and experience with tools for porting collections
More deployments in 2010 will provide a good set of schemas and templates for others to use, along with a community of practice to support one another, which will also support further adoption. 14

16. <. xml version="1. 0" encoding="UTF-8"
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <ns2:collectionobjects_naturalhistory xmlns:ns2=" xmlns:xsi=" xsi:schemaLocation=" <fieldLocLongDecimal> </fieldLocLongDecimal> <fieldLocLatDecimal> </fieldLocLatDecimal> <catalogDate>Mar 07, 1997</catalogDate> <fieldLocState>CA</fieldLocState> <phenology>Flowering/Fruiting</phenology> <fieldCollectionDateLatest>May 06, 1891</fieldCollectionDateLatest> <fieldCollectionDateEarliest>May 02, 1891</fieldCollectionDateEarliest> <fieldLocCounty>Solano</fieldLocCounty> <fieldLocCountry>USA</fieldLocCountry> <fieldCollector>W. L. Jepson</fieldCollector> <fieldCollectionDate>May May </fieldCollectionDate> </ns2:collectionobjects_naturalhistory> --a108dfc0-5a62-49c9-bbcb-557aace48ddf label: collectionobjects_common Content-Type: application/xml <ns2:collectionobjects_common xmlns:ns2=" xmlns:xsi=" xsi:schemaLocation=" <otherNumberType>collector number</otherNumberType> <otherNumber>14079</otherNumber> <responsibleDepartments> <responsibleDepartment>university-of-california-herbarium</responsibleDepartment> </responsibleDepartments> <objectNumber>UC18876</objectNumber> <title>Sidalcea keckii Wiggins</title> <briefDescription>Mounted on Paper</briefDescription> <dateAssociation>catalog date</dateAssociation> <comments>North-Western Solano, California</comments> </ns2:collectionobjects_common>
Just by changing the URL for this object (a RESTful URL), we can get the data in XML format.

18. So why CollectionSpace?
Campus-wide efficiencies
Excellence for core missions
True community-source and open-source solution
Consortial community-based approach to funding and financial sustainability
Campus-wide efficiencies: Best combination of functionality, business case for sustainability, and technology/architecture
Core mission excellence: A framework and platform for research, education and outreach to support the missions of the museums and the university

19. Getting Involved We would like to:
Learn more about your institution’s needs
Help you gain support for implementation of CollectionSpace within your organization
Build a sustainable community of users and contributors
We are looking for partners to help us make this a success!

20. BNHM Consortium and CollectionSpace
keley+Natural+History+Museum+and+IST+P artnership