Nine of the 13 curatorial divisions at the Peabody Museum of Natural History are actively participating in databasing projects. These departments all maintain databases in the Peabody’s central repository for electronic information, Argus, which is administered by the Peabody’s Systems Office. In addition, each curatorial department maintains other private databases in a variety of applications (e.g., dBase, Excel, Filemaker, Kedit, Word, etc.). These include address lists, bibliographic files, collection inventories and biographic information and range from a few hundred to a few thousand records.
Data Models
The Peabody Museum’s databasing activities revolve around Argus, a collection management application for storing and managing acquisition histories, specimen/object data and provenance descriptions. Search routines on the World Wide Web (WWW) are used primarily for scholarly requests for information.
The Association of Systematic Collections (ASC) Datamodel for Biological Collections is the standard for biological and paleontological collection databases and forms the backbone of the Peabody relational model. Where necessary the ASC datamodel was modified or augmented with protocols specific to Peabody’s collections and manual record keeping.
Argus
Argus is a multi-relational database application for collection management activities. We currently have approximately 2 million records in Argus distributed among six primary files: object, site, activity, constituent, documentation and vocabulary control. Each participating division has or is in the process of converting their manual cataloging system to an electronic counterpart. Anthropology and Vertebrate Zoology have completed their initial data entry and are now inventorying collections, verifying data and augmenting records with further documentation. The other divisions have yet to complete their data entry but are progressing according to schedule.
While each curatorial division maintains its own electronic catalog of specimen and provenance information, other files are developed for mutual use. Our accession records, constituent files and vocabulary control are maintained in common files available to all users, while division specific information is restricted to read-only capabilities for non-division personnel.
Data entry for these projects is staff-dependent. Some divisions (e.g., Invertebrate Zoology) have employed bursar/student assistants for routine data entry by using a standard set of data capture routines. Other divisions (e.g., Anthropology) have used the native entry capabilities of Argus for data capture. Data files are regularly imported from ascii text, generated from numerous database and text applications. Information from the Argus database can be exported to a variety of formats and purposes including a WWW database, type catalogs, specimen labels, etc.
World Wide Web
Specimen information for most of Peabody’s curatorial divisions is currently available on Peabody’s internet server, www.peabody.yale.edu. Lists of holdings from specific queries are available upon electronic request. Lookup tables exist for the user to query taxonomy (or name for Anthropology, Historical Instruments and Mineralogy), stratigraphy (for the paleontology collections), provenance and collection event activity.
Image Databases & Image Galleries
Virtually every division maintains collections of prints, negatives, slides and digital products. Three divisions are currently actively building image databases of their collections.