Topic 2: GUIDs for Collections and Specimens

[Roderic Page]

As a consumer of specimen GUIDs, I've found specimens to be frustrating
to deal with as individual collections don't guarantee uniqueness of
identifiers (Donald's point 2 below). For example, in the absence of
specimen GUIDs (such as LSIDs) I'd hoped to use a three part identifier
based on the DiGIR provider, e.g.

DiGIR provider URL : resource : specimen code

Hence,

digir.fieldmuseum.org/digir/DiGIR.php:MammalsDwC2:FMNH158106
\-----------------------------------/ \---------/ \--------/
           provider                      resource   specimen

identifies specimen FMNH 158106 of Tatera robusta at the Field Museum
in Chicago. The idea behind this crude hack is that the identifier can
be resolved (there's enough information in the identifier to retrieve
the record, see for example
http://darwin.zoology.gla.ac.uk/~rpage/hacks/2/index.html ).

To my horror, if I do this for MVZ 148946, I get three specimens back,
one each for Chaetodipus baileyi baileyi, Calidris mauri, and Rana
cascadae. This is an instance where the same specimen code is being
used in three different collections (mammals, birds, and herps). I
guess MVZ could have avoided this by using a different name for the
'resource' field for each collection.

I offer this as an example of where GUIDs are vital if we are to avoid
linking to the wrong information, and also where individual providers
need to ensure that the identifiers they generate are unique.

Regards

Rod


Professor Roderic D. M. Page
Editor, Systematic Biology
DEEB, IBLS
Graham Kerr Building
University of Glasgow
Glasgow G12 8QP
United Kingdom

Phone:    +44 141 330 4778
Fax:      +44 141 330 2792
email:    r.page at bio.gla.ac.uk
web:      http://taxonomy.zoology.gla.ac.uk/rod/rod.html
reprints: http://taxonomy.zoology.gla.ac.uk/rod/pubs.html

Subscribe to Systematic Biology through the Society of Systematic
Biologists Website:  http://systematicbiology.org
Search for taxon names at http://darwin.zoology.gla.ac.uk/~rpage/portal/




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As a consumer of specimen GUIDs, I've found specimens to be
frustrating to deal with as individual collections don't guarantee
uniqueness of identifiers (Donald's point 2 below). For example, in
the absence of specimen GUIDs (such as LSIDs) I'd hoped to use a three
part identifier based on the DiGIR provider, e.g.


DiGIR provider URL : resource : specimen code


Hence,


<fontfamily><param>Courier</param>digir.fieldmuseum.org/digir/DiGIR.php:MammalsDwC2:FMNH158106

\-----------------------------------/ \---------/ \--------/

          provider                      resource   specimen</fontfamily>


identifies specimen FMNH 158106 of Tatera robusta at the Field Museum
in Chicago. The idea behind this crude hack is that the identifier can
be resolved (there's enough information in the identifier to retrieve
the record, see for example
http://darwin.zoology.gla.ac.uk/~rpage/hacks/2/index.html ).


To my horror, if I do this for MVZ 148946, I get three specimens back,
one each for Chaetodipus baileyi baileyi, Calidris mauri, and Rana
cascadae. This is an instance where the same specimen code is being
used in three different collections (mammals, birds, and herps). I
guess MVZ could have avoided this by using a different name for the
'resource' field for each collection.


I offer this as an example of where GUIDs are vital if we are to avoid
linking to the wrong information, and also where individual providers
need to ensure that the identifiers they generate are unique.


Regards


Rod



Professor Roderic D. M. Page

Editor, Systematic Biology

DEEB, IBLS

Graham Kerr Building

University of Glasgow

Glasgow G12 8QP

United Kingdom


Phone:    +44 141 330 4778

Fax:      +44 141 330 2792

email:    r.page at bio.gla.ac.uk

web:      http://taxonomy.zoology.gla.ac.uk/rod/rod.html

reprints: http://taxonomy.zoology.gla.ac.uk/rod/pubs.html


Subscribe to Systematic Biology through the Society of Systematic

Biologists Website:  http://systematicbiology.org

Search for taxon names at
http://darwin.zoology.gla.ac.uk/~rpage/portal/