Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum, 2k

Biodiversitätsinformatik / Biodiversity Informatics
Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum Berlin-Dahlem

 

The ENHSIN Pilot - Implementation issues

Anton Güntsch

System overview

The ENHSIN Pilot network is a simple XML based prototype for a common access system for distributed heterogeneous biological collection databases at specimen level. It currently consist of four major components:

 

Fig.: System sketch

Provisional element set for the ENHSIN prototype

The following table contains the provisional list of 34 elements for the description of biological collection units to serve as a specification (structure and content) for data sources within the European Natural History Specimen Information Network (ENHSIN). The approach tries to balance the needs of both recipients and providers of collection data by providing elements for less structured information, which would get lost otherwise. Example: If the collection database represents the gathering date as a single unstructured text field, it would be difficult and time consuming to restructure the field into three attributes (Day, Month, and Year). Therefore the element set allows for both, the three attributes and the DateText element.

To take part in the ENHSIN pilot network a table, query, or view containing at least the elements marked “mandatory” has to be created. The element names given in the second column have to be used, and it has to be ensured that the right format is provided if indicated in the 5th column.

It should be noted that this element list should be seen as a basis for further discussion among ENHSIN partners and exchange of ideas with related projects (e.g. The Species Analyst) rather than a fixed interface specification.

No Element Name

Mandatory

Type Format Remark Example
1 SetDescrText   STRING   Information that is not covered by elements 2-5 or can not be structured as required  
2 InstName X STRING     Botanic Garden & Botanical Museum Berlin-Dahlem
3 CollName X STRING     Fruit and Seed Collection
4 Adr   STRING     Königin-Luise-Str. 6-8, 14195 Berlin, Germany
5 ContInf   STRING   Information needed to receive additional information from the information/collection holder. This can be a telephone number or an email address. name@mailserver.tg
6 Id X STRING   Unique (at collection level) identification number or code for collection object. Can be used to receive additional information from the collection holder and to express relations (with element 11) between units. At the global level the triple (InstName, CollName, UnitId) is unique. 1234
7 UnitText   STRING   Information that is not covered by elements 8-31 or can not be structured as required Gift from Botanic Garden xyz
8 Shape   STRING   Type (format) of collection object boxed, dried and pressed, photo
9 RelationText   STRING   Information that is not covered by elements 10-11 or can not be structured as required Cultivated from seeds from Willdenow collection
10 RelationType   STRING   Type of relation to another collection unit Is_derived_from
11 IsRelatedToId   STRING   Pointer to existing unit Id 937
12 TaxonText   STRING   Information that is not covered by elements 13-17 or can not be structured as required Lecanora hageni var. saxifragae Anzi
13 Kingdom   STRING     Plants
14 Family   STRING     Pinaceae
15 Genus   STRING     Abies
16 Spepi   STRING   Specific epithet alba
17 Infrepi   STRING   Rank + infraspecific epithet var. alba
18 Author   STRING   String with name of author(s) or author team(s) Miller
19 Determ   STRING   Person who made the determination Smith
20 SiteText   STRING   Information that is not covered by elements 21-27 or can not be structured as required IRELAND, Co. Mayo. VC 27. Clare Island. Alt. c. 1 m. Grid ref. 02/68. Coastal sandstone rocks W of the harbour
21 Country   STRING ISO3166-1   IRELAND
22 Place   STRING   Free text description of collection site 2 km in the north of Santorin airport
23 Lat   FLOAT Decimal Degrees   43.6544
24 Long   FLOAT Decimal Degrees   72.5561
25 Rad   FLOAT km Representation of the co-ordinates uncertainty with a radius. 0.7
26 UtmZone   STRING     56J
27 Alt   INT m Altitude 1000
28 Collectors   STRING   Collector(s) in the field Miller; Smith
29 DateText   STRING   Information that is not covered by elements 30-32 or cannot be structured as required. In winter 1966
30 Day   INT {1…31}   5
31 Month   INT {1...12}   12
32 Year   INT 4-digit   1966
33 Type   STRING   A statement on specimen type status holotype
34 URL   STRING http://...  A URL pointer to further unit level information http://www.abc.def/collectionDB?UnitID=1234

 

BGBM Überblick / Overview Abt. Biodiversitätsinformatik /
Dept. of Biodiversity Informatics		 BGBM 
Index

© 2005 Freie Universität Berlin, Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum Berlin-Dahlem,
Seitenverantwortlicher / Page editor: W. G. Berendsohn.     BGBM Impressum / Imprint

Disclaimer / Haftungsausschluss