Repatriation of Augmented Information to an Institutional Database

Abstract

On the 9th of April 2010 the Field Museum received a momentous email from the ORNIS (ORnithology Network Information System) team informing them that they could now access the products of a nationwide georeferencing project; its bird collection could be, quite literally, put on the map. On the 7th of August 2017 those data (along with the sister datasets from FISHNet (FISH NETwork) and MaNIS (Mammal Network Information System) finally made their way into the Museum’s collection management system. It's easy to get data out, why is it so hard to get it back? To make it easier, what do we need to do in terms of coordination, staffing, and/or technological resources? How can tools like data quality flags better accommodate the needs of data-providers as well as data-users elsewhere along the collections data pipeline? We present a real life case studyof repatriating an enhanced dataset to its institute of origin, including details on timelines, estimates of effort, and lessons learned. The best laid repatriation protocols might not prepare us for everything, but following them more closely might save us some sanity.