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

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

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.

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?

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

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

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. http://www.collectionspace.org http://wiki.collectionspace.org So what is CollectionSpace?

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

<. xml version="1. 0" encoding="UTF-8" <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <ns2:collectionobjects_naturalhistory xmlns:ns2="http://collectionspace.org/services/collectionobject/domain/naturalhistory" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://collectionspace.org/services/collectionobject/domain/naturalhistory http://collectionspace.org/services/collectionobject/domain/collectionobjects_naturalhistory.xsd"> <fieldLocLongDecimal>-122.019440</fieldLocLongDecimal> <fieldLocLatDecimal>38.436390</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 2 1891-May 6 1891</fieldCollectionDate> </ns2:collectionobjects_naturalhistory> --a108dfc0-5a62-49c9-bbcb-557aace48ddf label: collectionobjects_common Content-Type: application/xml <ns2:collectionobjects_common xmlns:ns2="http://collectionspace.org/services/collectionobject" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://collectionspace.org/services/collectionobject http://services.collectionspace.org/collectionobject/collectionobjects_common.xsd"> <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.

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

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!

BNHM Consortium and CollectionSpace http://www.collectionspace.org http://wiki.collectionspace.org https://wikihub.berkeley.edu/display/istds/Ber keley+Natural+History+Museum+and+IST+P artnership