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About the MSB
Biodiversity Informatics Program
The Biodiversity Informatics Program (BdIP) at the Museum of Southwestern
Biology is an inter-divisional effort to increase access to electronic
biodiversity information, develop tools to support such access,
and to increase the quality and integration of biodiversity information.
Biodiversity data of interest include specimen collections, observational
data, nomenclatural, endangerment status, and species-level information,
and localities.
Digitizing museum specimen and observational information
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MSB personnel in conjunction with New Mexico Biodiversity Collections Consortium (NMBCC)
developed a program for use as a museum Information Management
System which is optimized for rapid, accurate and complete data
entry. Called "Maii'tsoh," the Navajo
word for wolf, it is now being used by collections at UNM, WNMU,
and NMSU to enter and manage their specimen data. Maii'tsoh
has features to support museum tasks such as creating specimen
labels and keeping track of loans. Check out this flier
on Maiitsoh (PDF, 347KB) to get more information. For the
more technically inclined, the entire
schema (zipped XML files, 754KB) is available. |
| Natural Heritage New Mexico, a division of MSB,
developed its own databasing solution for maintaining information
on the status and localities for New Mexico's rare and endangered
species. Their information is based on the NatureServe model,
but extends it to hold more information concerning observations
or sources of information documenting populations. The Natural
Heritage information System is integrated with an ArcGIS geospatial
data entry protocol, a Microsoft Access front end for textual
entry and an SQL Server backend. |
Imaging specimens
| The UNM herbarium has taken a lead in creating
digital images of specimens for electronic access. The herbarium,
in conjunction with INRAM developed a cost-effective imaging
system and a simple, rapid protocol for imaging. Electronic
images are currently available online for the UNM
herbarium type specimens at two different levels of resolution.
The herbarium is currently imaging specimens for rare and sensitive
species and for specimens prior to going out on loan. |
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Georeferencing
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One of the strengths of the BdIP program is in the area of
"georeferencing" or converting text based localities
into geographic coordinates with an extent. Georeferenced
collection information makes the data available for mapping
species distributions, biodiversity hotspots, and areas in
need of collection, modelling distribution changes in response
to climate change and other academic research efforts.
The MSB mammal division was an original participant in the
Mammal
Networked Information System (MaNIS), a groundbreaking
effort to georeference mammal collection information from
several US collections. MSB personnel took the experience
learned from that project and developed a second generation
georeferencing effort codified in the INRAM
Georeferencing Protocol. This methodology combined with
a unique hardware/ software solution allowed INRAM and MSB
to georeference the MSB Amphibian & Reptile collection
and the UNM Herbarium collection information with a greater
degree of precision and accuracy than with the MaNIS protocol.
MSB personnel are now taking the development of georeferencing
tools and protocol to the next level with the BioGeomancer
project, an international effort to rapidly develop online
georeferencing tools and new standards for georeferencing
natural history collections. In addition, MSB divisions are
involved in the extension of the MaNIS project to new taxonomic
groups. The Division of Amphibians & Reptiles is participating
in the Herpetological Network (HerpNet)
and the Bird Division is a member of the Ornithological
Information System (OrnIS) |
Making our information available electronically
For many years, the MSB Division of Mammals has provided online
access to its specimen information using an in-house system. Currently,
they, the Division of Genomic Resources and the Division of Birds
are migrating to a new system based on the Arctos
program developed by the University of Alaska. The specimen data
from these collections is available here.
The mammal division specimen data is also available from the MaNIS
portal.
Natural
Heritage New Mexico provides data from their web site concerning
the 600 or so sensitive plant and animal species they track in New
Mexico. Their output includes county, ecoregion, or watershed species
lists and information concerning the federal and state status of
taxa and their global and state Heritage ranks.
Information concerning the New Mexico specimens from all MSB divisions
(and other collections from New Mexico Universities) is available
through NMBCC's Gateway
to New Mexico Biodiversity. Basic and simple query modes allow
for table output of specimen data and give access to county-level
maps of the query results. Registration allows access to the advanced
pages with more query options, the option to download data, and
the ability to map non-sensitive species using point-level data.
INRAM data is also accessible via the DiGR
protocol. The GBIF
advanced search is an alternative to the NMBCC portal that uses
the DiGR protocol to access the NMBCC data.
Web site hosting and development
The MSB BdIP maintains a bank of over a dozen servers that support
MSB activities including the development and/or hosting of web sites
or information delivery systems that are not related specifically
to our collections. Some of the activities we are involved with
include:
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