Catalog

Catalogs or Collections are administrative lists with inconsistent relationships to physical items. Therefore, a Cataloged Item is an abstraction, i.e., it is an item that has been cataloged, and hence defined, by the administrator of a catalog.

The term “specimen” is used synonymously with “cataloged item” throughout Arctos.

Catalog Number

Cataloged_Item . Cat_Num VARCHAR2(40) not null

Catalog Number is the identifier assigned to a Cataloged Item. It must be unique (case-insensitive) within a particular collection (duplicate catalog numbers within a collection are not allowed). Varoius formats are supported and bring various functional limitations with them. The code table provides more information.

Cataloged Item Type

Cataloged_Item . Cataloged_Item_Type VARCHAR2(20) not null

A code table is available to explicitly label various types of cataloged material.

Remarks

Coll_Object_Remark . Coll_Object_Remarks VARCHAR2(4000) null

Use remarks to document non-standard information pertaining to the specimen. Do not use remarks for any information which could be recorded with more structure elsewhere, including remarks better stored with a part, event, or any other “piece of the specimen.”

Entered By

Coll_Object . Entered_Person_ID NUMBER(22) not null

Agent creating the catalog record in Arctos.

Entered Date

Coll_Object . Coll_Object_Entered_Date NUMBER(7) not null

Date on which the record was created.

Edited By

Coll_Object . Last_Edited_Person_ID NUMBER(22) null

Agent last editing the catalog record.

Edited Date

Coll_Object . Last_Edit_Date NUMBER(7) null

Date on which the record was last edited.

Flags

Coll_Object . Flags VARCHAR2(20) null

Flags mark a specimen as missing information during the entry process. It is sometimes more convenient to bulkload data after the specimen record exists than to enter data with the specimen; flags serves as a marker to facilitate easily locating those specimens.

Associated Species

Coll_Object_Remark . Associated_Species VARCHAR2(4000) null

Free-text description of species associated with the specimen.

Guid Prefix

Public Required Editable Max Length Value Code Table What it does
Yes Yes No 20 None In conjunction with catalog number it forms a unique identifier within Arctos, and in conjunction with Arctos’ URI forms a Globally Unique Identifier (GUID) for the specimen record.

GUIDs, once formed, must never be allowed to change or expire, so selection of GUID Prefix is an important task in new collection set-up. See Creating a Meaningful GUID. All specimen citations should occur by way of GUID. Note that while GUID Prefix generally appears to be a concatenation of institution and collection code, it is in fact an independent concept; several collections from an institution may use the ‘Herb’ collection_cde (e.g. for vascular plants, cryptogams, and marine algae collections, for example).

Collection

Collection . Collection VARCHAR2(50) not null

A short name for a particular collection type. For example:

Collection Type

Public Required Editable Max Length Value Code Table What it does
No Yes No 5 ctcollection_cde Links collection catalogs to collection-type-specific code tables.

Code applied to a collection that provides context for types of parts and attributes that the collection will use. Exploring the “filter” option of Attribute Type or Part Name will provide an idea of how a collection type has been used.

Description

Collection . Descr VARCHAR2(4000) null

An extended name/description of the collection. For example:

Institution Acronym

Public Required Editable Max Length Value Code Table What it does
No Yes No 20 None Linked to barcode series and provides a method for sorting collections by institution.

Acronym of the institution that hosts the catalog. For example, “MVZ” for Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, “UAM” for University of Alaska Museum (of the North) and “MSB” for Museum of Southwestern Biology. 

There are some global collections registries that include institution acronyms including:

Taxonomy Source

Collections may choose and order any number of cttaxonomy_source. Classifications are applied to records from the first source which includes data for all taxa used in an identification.

Searching

From SpecimenSearch, Catalog Number accepts arguments of several forms. The following table is illustrative.

Input Matches Why
12 12 No-operator inputs are string matched.
12-14 12, 13, or 14 Dash-separated smaller–>larger integers specify a range. Note that there is a 1000-item limit on ranges and lists.
=12-14 12-14 ”=” (equals) prefix overrides all other operators and assumptions; only a matching string is returned.
12-11 12-11 “Second” item is smaller than “first” item; not considered as range.
12-0110 12-0110 “Second” item is zero-padded so not considered an integer; not considered as range.
12,13,14 12, 13, or 14 Commas are treated as list delimiters unless the value is prefixed with an equals sign. Note that there is a 1000-item limit on ranges and lists.
12,13a,14 12, 13a, or 14 Commas are treated as list delimiters unless the value is prefixed with an equals sign. Neither catalog numbers nor list elements must be numeric. Note that there is a 1000-item limit on ranges and lists.
%12% 12, 121, 12a, 999483612345, …. ”%” is “match anything.” This matches anything CONTAINING 12.
%12 12, 112, AABC-5-a12, …. ”%” is “match anything.” This matches anything ENDING WITH 12.
_12 012, a12, 912, …. “_” is “match any single character.”
1_2 102, 112, 1A2, …. “_” is “match any single character.”

Locating Specimens by Identifier

Each specimen in Arctos receives (and is define by) a single catalog number, along with any number of identifying numbers, often referred to as “Other IDs.” There are several ways, each with their own limitations, to search these numbers. The data available for searching vary wildly based on what collectors have recorded and what collections have entered. Some exploration is often involved in finding a particular set of specimens.

Other IDs

Along with catalog numbers, Arctos provides the capacity to attach any number of identifiers of various types to specimens.

Other Identifiers, like catalog numbers, have three components: A prefix, an integer, and a suffix. Individual collections define how these components should be used, acceptable values, and how data are to be entered, and these decisions affect what sorts of queries are possible. It is often not possible to deduce these rules and practices – contact us if you need help.

To get Other ID search, click More Options on the Identifiers pane of SpecimenSearch.

This will provide options to select Other ID Type and to provide an Other ID Number. (We generally use “number” in the sense of a license plate rather than an integer.) Additionally, you can choose whether the number is an exact match or a “contains” match. Exact match searches are case-sensitive.

It’s often unclear what type of ID might have been assigned to a number, and the descriptions currently do little to clarify that problem. It is therefore possible (and often most practical) to search by the number component, entirely ignoring ID Type.

The above example finds all specimens with any type of identifier (except catalog number)

containing the string 123. As of this writing, that search returns 9330 specimens. Additional criteria, coupled with Arctos’ sorting capability, is hopefully enough to find the specimen data of interest.

To get all search options, click Customize (near “Show More Options”), select a “My Other Identifier” (which will also then appear in results and on various forms), and choose “Show 3-part ID Search.”

Click Close and the form will reload with total of eight search options. For this example, we’ll use Collector Number. The simplest use case is to search for a string, here 1234:

This sends the query upper(customIdentifier.Display_Value) LIKE ‘%1234%’ (display_value is a concatenation of prefix, number, and suffix). This returns specimens with Collector Numbers of:

regardless of how the data were entered and are stored. (“ABC-1234-X” could be entered as prefix=”ABC-1234-X” or as prefix=”ABC-“, number=”1234″, suffix=”-X”; “1234” could have been entered as a number or as a prefix.)

Changing the dropdown from “contains” to “is” will, of the above examples, return only “1234.”

The “in list” option accepts a comma-separated list of values.

The above example sends SQL upper(customIdentifier.DISPLAY_VALUE) IN (‘A’,’B’,’C’), and as of this writing returns three specimens:

The in range option works only for enforced-integer types of identifiers (currently only AF and NK). Attempting to use it for collector number will result in a datatype mismatch and return an error.

Three-part search to the rescue! (At least in the cases where data are entered correctly.) All of the above deal with the concatenation of prefix, number, and suffix. It is also possible to search these independently. Search for integer component=1234:

to send SQL customIdentifier.other_id_number = 1234.

This is a numeric match of the numeric part of other IDs. It will not find specimens which have the numeric information entered into prefix. This information is not available to public users, but is evident from the edit form. This specimen will NOT be found with the previous search!

Prefix and suffix work similarly. This search:

sends SQL AND upper(customIdentifier.other_id_prefix) LIKE ‘%A%’ AND customIdentifier.other_id_number = 123 (note prefix is a CONTAINS match and is not case-sensitive) and returns these specimens:

{width=”320” height=”215”}

Understanding Cataloged Items

We address assigning catalog numbers to material with a few brief examples.

In short, we strongly recommend cataloging the item of scientific interest: the material that Researcher #2 will ask to borrow for confirmation when they find your citations in GenBank or publications. Any other approach complicates tracking citations and data management.

We present as example a brief list of things that may be cataloged in Arctos.

Understanding Specimen Records

As a highly normalized system, there is no real meaning to the term “the specimen record” in Arctos. Most views of the data provide information somewhat equivalent to Simple DarwinCore. No view contains everything that might be considered the entire specimen record. The available information varies wildly across records.

Understanding DarwinCore mapping

The primary entity in DarwinCore (DWC) is the Occurrence (https://dwc.tdwg.org/terms/#occurrence). Mapping Arctos records to Occurrences is not straightforward; new OccurrenceIDs must be minted for DWC transfer by appending “seid” (Specimen Event ID, although identifiers should be viewed only as identifiers). A GUID + SEID URI will highlight the relevant Event determination in Arctos records (example below). A few examples follow; these are not the only complex situations possible in Arctos, but are the most common. (Data in Arctos change frequently; please let us know if an example does not make sense or function as described.)

DWC Example

Screen Shot 2021-05-14 at 7 33 38 AM

A view of https://arctos.database.museum/guid/UAMb:Herb:26709?seid=1986294, one of the two Occurrences of https://arctos.database.museum/guid/UAMb:Herb:26709

Minimum Data

The minimum possible specimen record is a catalog number, although “core” data such as Identifications and Accessions are difficult or impossible to avoid in the interfaces. There are “we don’t know” values for all “required” fields and concepts; “unidentifiable” is a valid taxon which may be used in identifications, for example.

All Data

The “full specimen record” consists of the core data and all data linked to those data at any depth. The full specimen record should not be viewed as something that resides entirely within Arctos. There are currently no views which could be considered “the full specimen record.” A specimen record may contain any number of Attributes, Collectors, Citations, Specimen-Events, Identifications, Media, Identifiers, Parts, Transactions, etc. Many of these objects are linked to other objects, which are in turn linked to more. Some incomplete examples:

Any of these data - and those not mentioned here - may be critical to answering some questions involving a specimen, and should therefore be considered “the specimen record.” It is unlikely that any question requires all of these data, and assembling them into one view would be, at best, difficult. Arctos links to related data when possible, and we are always receptive to adding more or different data to “default views,” adding pathways to specimens through any of these data, or otherwise providing tools to access various data in the context of other data.

See also: Arctos as an ecosystem

Defining Collections

Collections in Arctos are wholly administrative. Collections may be comprised of similar taxa (e.g. mammals), of various taxa organized for some purpose (such at the Hildebrandt Collection at MVZ), by legacy usage, or anything else. The sole functional or technical consideration is code tables, which are tied to collection type (collection_cde). For example, contrast Attributes available to a Mamm collection versus a Para collection.

Legacy collections often exist for various reasons, and these may have duplicate catalog numbers, unpredictable formats which may confuse users, or contain arbitrary divides which no longer make sense. Combining these into a unified collection in Arctos is generally trivial, and Arctos provides various mechanisms (such as actionable identifiers and redirects) to ensure that no functionality is lost. Collections with “less citable” catalog number schemes are unlikely to support actionable citations, and so little is lost if the “traditional catalog numbers” are subsumed under a “citable catalog number.” This approach has been used to unify and disambiguate several Arctos collections; we find tradition little excuse to go forward under systems which discourage good science.

Deleting records from Arctos

  1. Encumber the record(s) to be deleted. Create an appropriate encumbrance first, if necessary. Records may be flagged from individual specimens, or en masse by using the Manage widget from Specimen Results of a search. Once records are flagged, they may be deleted by users with the appropriate privileges.
  2. Find the encumbrance (under Tools). Click See Specimens and carefully review what you’re about to delete.
  3. From Manage Encumbrances, click Delete Encumbered Specimens. You’ll again be asked to review your decision, and must click the proceed button at the bottom of the page to delete the records from the database.

Note that there may be reasons to keep masked records in the database instead of deleting them.

Recataloging Specimens

It is sometimes necessary to move cataloged items from one collection or catalog number to another. When doing so, it is important to maintain a way of finding the specimen by its original identifiers. In this, be as specific as possible. Use specific identifier types and GUIDs if possible. (See more at Other IDs.)

Arctos provides HTTP redirect capability, under which one URL (http://arctos.database.museum/guid/KNWR:Ento:7193, for example) can be automatically redirected to another (http://arctos.database.museum/guid/UAM:Ento:228334). This helps in maintaining a record of the specimen rather than the specimen’s identifying numbers, and allows users to continue using bookmarks and links.

To do this,

  1. Ensure that the “old” URL returns a 404 HTTP status code. You may do this in two ways:
    1. Delete the specimen. All users will then get the redirect.
    2. Encumber the specimen with a “mask record” encumbrance. Users who do not have rights to bypass the encumbrance (e.g., all public users) will then be redirected, while operators will be able to continue to access the record.
  2. Insert into table REDIRECT (Manage Data/Tools/Redirects) old and new paths. For example, if DGR:Mamm:123 is recataloged as MSB:Mamm:456, enter: old_path=/guid/DGR:Mamm:123; new_path=/guid/MSB:Mamm:456.

Other ID documentation has moved to it’s own page.

How To

Instructions for doing specifc tasks related to entering Catalog Records in Arctos

Edit this Documentation

If you see something that needs to be edited in this document, you can create an issue using the link under the search widget at the top left side of this page, or you can edit directly here.