Hi Elspeth,
if I remember correctly the original idea was to include something for "specimen is marked as a type". This could definitely be captured during digitisation (usually e.g. indicated by a red stamp on the specimen) We have an ods term for it:  ods:isMarkedAsType but no DwC term. 

It could be assumed that if typeStatus is present in the dataset and null that it is not a type, but that is a hack and not necessarily always correct. I  am not much in favor of hacks in a standard, so I would opt for 4. include as a recommendation only. At the same time we could also propose a new DwC term for it (could be done as part of the DwC-DP review). If such a new term gets accepted, we could change the recommendation to a requirement for MIDS2 but of course it will take time for existing datasets to add such a new field. 

We could also propose a DwC extension with ods terms, but I would rather like to see inclusion in DwC-DP.

Kind regards,
Wouter

On Thu, 6 Nov 2025 at 13:01, Elspeth Haston <EHaston@rbge.org.uk> wrote:

Dear all

 

A reminder for our meeting today at 1500 UTC. See below for the link to the meetings on Thursdays.

 

At our last meeting we revived discussion about the TypeStatus https://github.com/tdwg/mids/issues/26

 

Please have a look at the discussion in the comment for this issue in GitHub and provide feedback to help us decide on the best option for managing the Type Status in MIDS.

 

It is currently not mapped in DwC. There is not a good way to map it in SSOM without it being required. Our options are:

  1. Include it at MIDS2 which will make it very difficult for collections to reach MIDS2 unless they have a value here.
  2. Exclude it completely.
  3. Include it at MIDS2 and see if we can implement a hack in the mapping to allow a null value to be acceptable.
  4. Include is as a recommendation only, not as part of the normative Information Elements.

 

It would be good to get more feedback and discussion from the Task Group. You can add your comments into the GitHub issue or you can come along to the meetings to make your points vocally (these are best) or you can e-mail me directly and I’ll add your comments to the GitHub issue. It will be great to hear from you.

 

Best wishes

 

Elspeth

 

 

-----Original Appointment-----
From:
Sent: None
To: TDWG Minimum Information about a Digital Specimen (MIDS) Task Group Mailing List;

Subject: TDWG MIDS Task Group - Ratification process update
When: 06 November 2025 15:00-16:00 Europe/London.
Where: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89460818743?pwd=gySuYnBWcbbtTJbl9vXSpyDqaDE0jk.1

 

 

Dear all

 

We will be continuing our weekly meetings on Thursdays but will be joined at some of these meetings by members of the expert panel who will be reviewing the documentation.

 

Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89460818743?pwd=gySuYnBWcbbtTJbl9vXSpyDqaDE0jk.1

 

Meeting ID: 894 6081 8743

Passcode: 914802

 

We now have a fantastic team of people who have agreed to join our expert panel to review MIDS as part of the ratification process.

 

There will not be a meeting on Thursday 23rd October during TDWG at which there will be a few MIDS presentations, including a summary for the TDWG session at the end of the conference.

 

We hope to see you at any meetings that you can join. This should be a super interesting time as we review MIDS as a functioning draft to see how it actually works for the community. Please keep an eye on the GitHub issues as work is being done and contribute where you can. https://github.com/tdwg/mids/issues

 

The website development has been going well - thanks to Ben for all his work - https://tdwg.github.io/mids/index.html

 

You can check on what has been happening in our weekly meeting notes here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/19ET0p6641ZNzNQG4qNs_jje0LokoKJ9Ls5bhFdUw184/edit?tab=t.0

 

Best wishes

 

Elspeth, Cat & Mathias

 

Co-convenors of the MIDS Task Group

 

 

Topic: TDWG MIDS Task Group

Time: Oct 16, 2025 15:00 London

        Every 7 days, until Jul 30, 2026, 42 occurrence(s) Please download and import the following iCalendar (.ics) files to your calendar system.

Daily: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/tZ0pcemgrzMtHtcYadyun0MJ8J42UPHvN6AO/ics?icsToken=DP52iz9Rn6GqrFBZxQAALAAAANILS94iZN_R498Ps7RZI3IMm5nf7G_c8vmeR7oKexBPqQOp426o0plVUw1I8t-WKoXljw28OWmOpsmQjjAwMDAwMQ&meetingMasterEventId=OyB5DgmASsKAPYcWS-EIlg

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89460818743?pwd=gySuYnBWcbbtTJbl9vXSpyDqaDE0jk.1

 

Meeting ID: 894 6081 8743

Passcode: 914802

 

---

 

 

 

Logo

Dr Elspeth Haston
Deputy Herbarium Curator
Tel 00 44 (0)131 248 2800

20a Inverleith Row, Edinburgh, EH3 5LR Scotland
rbge.org.uk

 

@emhaston | Google Scholar | https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9144-2848
Search our Herbarium collections online at http://data.rbge.org.uk/herb

 


The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh is a charity registered in Scotland (No SC007983) | Support Us

This notice applies to this email and to any other email subsequently sent by anyone at RBGE and appearing in the same chain of email correspondence. References below to "this email" should be read accordingly. This e-mail and its attachments (if any) are confidential, may be protected by copyright and may be privileged. If you receive this e-mail in error, notify us immediately by reply e-mail, delete it and do not use, disclose or copy it. Unless we expressly say otherwise in this e-mail, this e-mail does not create, form part of, or vary, any contractual or unilateral obligation. No liability is accepted for viruses and it is your responsibility to scan attachments (if any). Where this e-mail is unrelated to the business of RBGE, the opinions expressed within this e-mail are the opinions of the sender and do not necessarily constitute those of RBGE. RBGE emails are filtered and monitored.

_______________________________________________
tdwg-mids mailing list -- tdwg-mids@lists.tdwg.org
To unsubscribe send an email to tdwg-mids-leave@lists.tdwg.org


--
Met vriendelijke groet,

Wouter Addink
Coordinator international E-infrastructures & Data






+31717519364 - +31613989831
wouter.addink@naturalis.nlwww.naturalis.nl
Darwinweg 2, 2333 CR Leiden
Postbus 9517, 2300 RA Leiden