Coding at the Bar Larry Gall -- Peabody Museum of Natural History

Coding at the Bar

Notes on how barcoding got incoroporated into a multi-collection move

Peabody Collections Counts & Functional Cataloguing Unit Anthropology 325,000Lot Botany 350,000Individual Entomology1,000,000Lot / Individual Invertebrate Paleontology 300,000Lot Invertebrate Zoology 300,000Lot Mineralogy 35,000Individual Paleobotany 150,000Individual Scientific Instruments 4,000Individual Vertebrate Paleontology 125,000Individual Vertebrate Zoology 185,000Lot / Individual 2.7 million database-able units => ~11 million items

Peabody Collections Functional Units Databased Anthropology 325, % Botany 350,000 1 % Entomology1,000,000 4 % Invertebrate Paleontology 300, % Invertebrate Zoology 300, % Mineralogy 35, % Paleobotany 150, % Scientific Instruments 4, % Vertebrate Paleontology 125, % Vertebrate Zoology 185, % 1,010,000 of 2.7 million => 38 % overall

Science Hill

ESC

Move ENT, IZ, PB, VZ ORN, VZ, IZ ANT

Move ENT, IP, IZ, PB, VZ ENT, ORN, VZ, IP, IZ ANT BOT

Yale West Campus Bayer Pharmaceutical 135 acres West Haven purchased 2007 buildings = 1.6 million square feet

A21 A19

Peabody Museum Yale Art Gallery British Art Center Mudd Library Manuscripts & Archives Center for Media Initiatives etc., etc., etc.

Manufacturing Building A21

Warehouse A19

Osteology = 15,000Anthropology = 200,000Instruments = 4,000

16 months, vacating 8 rooms in 2 buildings 1.5 million objects (230,000 EMu records) Find, document, conserve, pack, move Simple barcoding functionality for EMu Cannot slow down physical workflow Western Bottom Line

16 months, vacating 8 rooms in 2 buildings 1.5 million objects (230,000 EMu records) Find, document, conserve, pack, move Simplified barcoding functionality w/EMu Did not slow down physical workflow Western Bottom Line

Barcoding Desiderata

Tethered/wireless, batch/realtime Software implementation Contract work with KE Integrate 3 rd party product Roll-your-own

Barcoding Desiderata Tethered/wireless, batch/realtime Software implementation Contract work with KE Integrate 3 rd party product Roll-your-own

Texxmlserver Dedicate an additional license Direct API to EMu Texpress utilities No additional license Use another interface to EMu Barcoding Desiderata Web server builtin as part of Solaris OS on server

Barcodes scanned into a web page CGI script parses scans, decides on action Input passed to secondary processing script Processing script calling texpress utilities Barcoding Desiderata

Packing decisions that simplifed barcoding Drawer of objects in a cabinet – put objects into a new Delta drawer Objects in a tray on a shelf – put objects into a new Delta drawer Free objects – put objects into customized packing boxes Think in terms of independently moveable items Do not conceptualize the moving on an object-centric basis

First scan is into a package, an EMu holder Single object in box, multiple objects in box, Delta drawer = all packages Next scans are into progressively larger holders Cabinets, cases, pallets… moving truck = top of hierarchy Unwind scanning hierarchy as required out West Minimally, scan the large holders from truck into swingspace holder Barcoding Desiderata

=> ANT.PKG HSI.PKG VZ.PKG VZ.PAL.0292 ANT.CAB.0075TRUCK.WC Holder nomenclature

Existing drawer location barcode ( multiple objects already attached in EMu ) Object barcode Package barcode

Yale Art GalleryPeabody Zebra TLP-3844Z printer, tethered scan gun

Symbol MC3090R wireless barcode scanner Windows CE 5.0 Pro EMu doesnt run on CE

Source Scan & Target Scan

CGI script

Texql barcode values from elocations file Identify types (holder vs. location) Check if move is logically consistent Check holder hierarchy of implied move If all ok, hand off to processing script Return to see what user wants next CGI script

Object, Holder, Location combinations: Holder to Holder ok Holder to Location ok Holder to Object invalid Location to Holder ok Location to Location invalid Location to Object invalid Object to Holder ok * Object to Location ok ** Object to Object invalid * = only if Holder is a PKG ** = same as EMu relocate function CGI script

Most common combinations for Processing Script: Object to Holder texload target holder into single object LocCurrentLocationRef Location to Holder texload target holder into many object LocCurrentLocationRef Holder to Holder texload target holder into source LocHolderLocationRef Holder to Location texload target location into source LocHolderLocationRef texload a custom timestamp into the respective NotNotes or LocMovementNotes; if a Holder to Holder move is involved, also timestamp all PKG holders within the source, to force an update of the einternal histories for all the objects

A Coding Gotcha

an EMu data directory

texload –g{gram} –d{data} –vdata {module}

Westward Ho ! Finding, labeling, cataloging Cleaning, conserving, packing Taking digital photos if unimaged Pallet & cabinet assembly Hauling stuff to new digs

Spring 2008 Assemble barcoding equipment

Spring 2008 West renovations, buy packing materials

Spring 2008 Learn to drive, configure A21 swingspace

Spring 2008 HSI – reclaim squirreled away cabinetry

Spring 2008 VZ - clean, catalog the uncataloged

Spring 2008 ANT - clean, make boxes, stage new drawers

June 2008 ANT – vanquish the Phys Ant lab, convert to packing central

June 2008 ANT – hire moving experts

Summer-Fall 2008 ANT – pipeline one: objects with photos incoming…

Summer-Fall 2008 ANT – custom boxes and packing

Summer-Fall 2008 ANT – ethafoam madness, part 1

Summer-Fall 2008 ANT – ethafoam madness, part 2

Summer-Fall 2008 ANT – pipeline two: objects without photos

Summer-Fall 2008 ANT – automated import scripts

Summer-Fall 2008 ANT – automated import scripts

Summer-Fall 2008 ANT – scanning into pallets, shrink-wrapping

Summer-Fall 2008 ANT – scanning into cabinets, heading out the door…

Summer-Fall 2008 ANT – scanning into cabinets, heading out the door…

Summer-Fall 2008 ANT – hefting stuff on forklift

Summer-Fall 2008 ANT – onto the truck

Summer-Fall 2008 ANT – barcoded truck

Summer-Fall 2008 ANT – soldier down Oh %&#* …

Summer-Fall 2008 ANT – soldier down

Summer-Fall 2008 ANT – soldier down

Summer-Fall 2008 ANT – replacement soldier

Summer-Fall 2008 VZ – Old Bill… too big for a package

Summer-Fall 2008 VZ – Old Bill heads West

Summer-Fall 2008 VZ – Old Bill heads West

Summer-Fall 2008 VZ – Old Bill presiding over A21

Summer-Fall 2008 The ever-changing swingspaces

Summer-Fall 2008 The ever-changing swingspaces

Summer-Fall 2008 ANT – shipment of new Delta Cabinets

Summer-Fall 2008 ANT – cabinet comes out of swingspace…

Summer-Fall 2008 ANT – drawers moved & scanned into new home

Summer-Fall 2008 ANT – some statistics So far… 11,000 newly acquired images 40,000 object records scanned to West 195,000 new einternal records total estimated einternal growth is ~ 300% barcoding now well accepted at YPM

Summer-Fall 2008