| Abstract Detail
Paleobotany Wilkins, Alyson E. [1], Serbet, Rudolph [2], Taylor, Edith L. [3]. Paleobotanical Digital Data Migration, Management and Standardization. Making paleobotanical collections data available digitally allows for greater access to researchers. The procedures and tools involved with migration of data across database platforms can vary, but the general structures remain the same. There are also different data needs that paleobotanical records require as compared to data from other paleontological and biological collections. Methods of data management and migration will be illustrated using recent examples from the transfer of the University of Kansas paleobotanical database from FileMaker Pro into the Specify database platform. Illustrating the data workflow used to transfer large amounts of data will also be explored. From the beginning stages of transferring the original platform into a compatible form to the final stages of data cleaning and to Darwin Core and other collections data standards to maintain data accuracy and consistency. Other collections data challenges will also be addressed, such as data from historic or orphaned collections. The tools used to assist in the data migration were OpenRefine and Microsoft Excel. The University of Kansas paleobotanical database includes over 100,000 records and the collections span all of the major divisions of life, as well as all periods of geologic time, focusing on paleobotanical, palynological and paleomycological material. A comparison will also be made between paleobotanical data and other biological collections data to illustrate the specific differences that will need to be resolved when progressing further into digital collections data and online data sharing.
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1 - University of Kansas, Museum Studies and Biodiversity Institute, 1345 Jayhawk Blvd, Lawrence, KS, 66045, USA
2 - University Of Kansas, Division Of Paleobotany, Biodiversity Institute, 1200 Sunnyside Avenue, Lawrence, KS, 66045, United States
3 - University of Kansas, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Biodiversity Institute, 1200 Sunnyside Drive, Haworth Hall, Lawrence, Kansas, 66045, United States
Keywords:
collections
digitization
paleobotany.
Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: 34, Cookson Award Session II
Location: 109/Mayo Civic Center
Date: Tuesday, July 24th, 2018
Time: 4:15 PM
Number: 34003
Abstract ID:898
Candidate for Awards:Isabel Cookson Award |
