DINA Bits - Small Services Growing in the DINA System

Abstract

The DINA system (“DIgital information system for NAtural history data”, https://dina-project.net) consists of several web-based services that fulfill specific tasks. Most of the existing services are covering single core features in the collection management system and can be used either as integrated components in the DINA environment, or as stand-alone services. In this presentation single services will be highlighted as they represent technically interesting approaches and practical solutions for daily challenges in collection management, data curation and migration workflows. The focus will be on the following topics: (1) a generic reporting and label printing service, (2) practical decisions on taxonomic references in collection data and (3) the generic management and referencing of related research data and metadata: Reporting as presented in this context is defined as an extraction and subsequent compilation of information from the collection management system rather than just summarizing statistics. With this quite broad understanding of the term the DINA Reports & Labels Service (Museum für Naturkunde Berlin 2018) can assist in several different collection workflows such as generating labels, barcodes, specimen lists, vouchers, paper loan forms etc. As it is based on customizable HTML templates, it can be even used for creating customized web forms for any kind of interaction (e.g. annotations). Many collection management systems try to cope with taxonomic issues, because in practice taxonomy is used not only for determinations, but also for organizing the collections and categorizing storage units (e.g. “Coleoptera hall”). Addressing taxonomic challenges in a collection management system can slow down development and add complexity for the users. The DINA system uncouples these issues in a simple taxonomic service for the sole assignment of names to specimens, for example determinations. This draws a clear line between collection management and taxonomic research, of which the latter can be supported in a separate service. While the digitization of collection data and workflows proceeds, linking related data is essential for data management and enrichment. In many institutions research data is disconnected from the collection specimen data because the type and structure cannot be easily included in the collection management databases. With the DINA Generic Data Module (Museum für Naturkunde Berlin 2017) a service exists that allows for attaching any relational data structures to the DINA system. It can also be used as a standalone service that accommodates structured data within a DINA compliant interface for data management.