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Track: Natural Resources and Conservation
Natalie Munn
University of California, Berkeley
110 Doe Library 6200
Berkeley, CA 94720-6200
Telephone: 510-642-5306
Fax: 510-643-8856
E-mail: nkmunn@violet.berkeley.edu
Glen Jackson
Implementing GIS Access to a RDBMS in a Museum Collection Management System
Defining Issue: GIS enhances location-based query and reporting capabilities of museum collections management systems. GIS Solution: The Museum Informatics Project implemented ArcView as a SYBASE client to achieve enhanced query and reporting of spatial information from the Specimen Management System for Herbaria (SMASH). Methodology: In a study published in 1993, The Consortium of Free Standing Museums and Botanical Gardens identified mapping and GIS as their second and third most important unmet needs (behind imaging). In a response to this demand, the Museum Informatics Project (MIP) made a commitment to implement GIS solutions in museum information systems. MIP staff prepared a proof of concept implementation of GIS connectivity for the Specimen Management System for Herbaria, a database research project sponsored by the National Science Foundation. This implementation consisted of the following steps: software review, data modeling, data normalization, software installation, software and network
connectivity, troubleshooting, writing, demonstration queries and reports, performing demonstrations and soliciting feedback on the following topics: * How GIS/desktop mapping could provide planning tools for specimen collecting activities in the field * How GIS/desktop mapping could enable cross-platform data sharing, queries to multiple RDBMS, and multidisciplinary research * How GIS could enhance spatial query and reporting capabilities of museum information systems * How GIS/desktop mapping could provide a data error checking and normalization tool for location fields * How GIS/desktop mapping reporting capabilities could better enable museums to fulfill their public service missions Software: Wintel, Esri ArcView, Intersolv Data Direct ODBC, SYBASE System 10. Networking: TCP/IP and Novell
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