Progress in developing an online portal

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Progress in developing an online portal to
herbarium specimen collections for Northwestern
North America Ben Legler David Giblin Dick
Olmstead University of Washington blegler_at_u.washi
ngton.edu
Alaska British Columbia Idaho Montana Oregon Washi
ngton Yukon Territory
Botany 2008 Vancouver, B.C. July 27, 2008
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Presentation Outline

• Overview of regional herbaria and collections
• Funding and initiation of portal development
• Current progress and deliverables
• Future directions unfinished work

Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria
www.pnwherbaria.org
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Regional Herbaria Collections
53 public and private herbaria. 3,344,738
specimens.
Alaska 5 herbaria 228,681 specimens (ALA)
Yukon Territory 1 herbarium 4,000
specimens (private collection)
British Columbia 9 herbaria 890,800
specimens (UBC, V, UVIC)
Montana 6 herbaria 278,850 specimens (MONTU, MONT)
Washington 13 herbaria 1,124,300 specimens (WTU,
WS)
Idaho 8 herbaria 342,807 specimens (ID, IDS, SRP,
CIC)
Oregon 11 herbaria 475,300 specimens (OSC)
Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria
www.pnwherbaria.org
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Regional Herbaria Collections
Collections currently online
Herbarium of records online
Oregon State University (OSC) 149,130
University of Alaska, Fairbanks (ALA) 143,498
University of British Columbia (UBC) 408,200
University of Montana (MONTU) 47,000
University of Washington (WTU) 166,710

Total online 914,538
Collections soon to be online
1,324,538?
Herbarium Expected of records
Albertson College (CIC, Idaho) 35,000?
Boise State University (SRP, Idaho) 30,000?
Idaho State University (IDS) 60,000?
University of Idaho (ID) 135,000?
Washington State University (WS) 150,000

Total expected 410,000?
Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria
www.pnwherbaria.org
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Funding and Initiation of Portal Development
Portal initiation

• Discussions among regional curators initiated in
  late 2006 by Dick Olmstead following early
  completion or WTUs previous NSF grant.
• Favorable support of regional curators led to
  submission of supplemental request to NSF
  request was awarded in early 2007.

Stated goals in NSF supplemental request
Supplement Budget Supplement Budget
Salary benefits 18,138
Supplies 1,200
Travel 804
Indirect costs 11,858
Total 32,000

1. Link regional herbarium specimen records through
   online portal.
2. Provide unified access point for online resources
   associated with participating collections.
3. Develop data-sharing protocols to minimize
   redundant data entry.
4. Facilitate databasing efforts at smaller
   institutions.

Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria
www.pnwherbaria.org
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Current Progress
What has been accomplished thus far?

1. Website providing access to about 400,000
   specimens collections from 3 regional herbaria
   (ALA, OSC, WTU), with infrastructure in place to
   easily add more collections.
2. Linked list of online resources hosted by
   regional herbaria.
3. Contact info and statistics for regional herbaria.

Initial goals not yet accomplished

1. Data sharing among herbaria to minimize redundant
   data entry.
2. Facilitate databasing of regionally significant
   collections at smaller institutions. Note
   portal provides a means for smaller institutions
   to put their data online.

Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria
www.pnwherbaria.org
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Live Web Site Demo
http//www.pnwherbaria.org/
Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria
www.pnwherbaria.org
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Infrastructure Technology
Provider Web Servers (ALA, OSC, WTU)
PNW Herbaria Portal Web Server
Data/Metadata Request
Cache Update Scripts
Update Log
DiGIR Access Point
Web Browser
HTTP/XML
Search Request
Data/Metadata Response
Web Scripts
HTTP/HTML
Provider Database
Search Response
Portal Cache
Search Log
HTML, JavaScript
(TODO provider feedback)
PHP, MySQL
Cache update scripts run nightly. Records are
cached in full on portal server.
Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria
www.pnwherbaria.org
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Future Directions Unfinished Work
Much remains to be done

1. Integrate additional collections into the portal
   as they become available online with DiGIR access
   points.
2. Develop mechanism to report data usage statistics
   to providers.
3. Migrate to newer and more data-rich data sharing
   infrastructure (such as an update to Darwin
   schema, TAPIR).
4. Increase portal functionality with additional
   features and complete unfinished portal pages!
   Maintain and update current web site.
5. Facilitate data sharing among herbaria.
6. Assist smaller regional collections with
   databasing efforts, possibly by developing an
   online data entry interface.

Additional funding???
Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria
www.pnwherbaria.org
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Questions?
Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria
www.pnwherbaria.org