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Bringing Science to the World. Museum Victoria Natural Science Collections Online 2008 EMu Users’ Meeting, Wellington, New Zealand Alex Chubaty, Collection Information Systems. Introduction. 2006 – collections on Intranet (‘Musenet’) History and Technology collection Data preparation
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Bringing Science to the World Museum VictoriaNatural Science Collections Online 2008 EMu Users’ Meeting, Wellington, New Zealand Alex Chubaty, Collection Information Systems
Introduction • 2006 – collections on Intranet (‘Musenet’) • History and Technology collection • Data preparation • Field mapping • Features: • Keyword and Advanced Searches • Tagging • Recently viewed images • Search filters • Related records based on Classification, • Subjects/Keywords, Collection Name • Over 385,000 records
Natural Sciences on Musenet • Field Mapping • Search and Display • Fields and Records • Data preparation • Consistency (Taxonomy module) • Format standardisation • Data validation • Common names • Basic Features • Keyword and Advanced Searches • Tagging • Recently viewed images
Advanced Search interface (partial) for MV Natural Sciences collections on ‘Musenet’
Search returns and display • Individual records plus links via scientific name • Custom made ‘summary data’ • Search filters • Taxonomy • Locality • Mapping facility • Species • Specimen
Mapping Functionality • Google Maps vs KE Maps • Installation and support • Public familiarity • Google technology improvements • Google Earth/Google Maps
Natural Sciences live on the web • On Musenet - Oct 2007 • Live from MV website – Nov 2007 • 11 disciplines • Over 883,000 records • Example searches
Later Features Added • Mapping at single specimen level • Browse function – 3 broad levels • Vernacular names added • Search engine optimisation • Improved search speed and search matching
Features To Be Released or Tested • Species level results as first results • Location based searches • Display vernacular names more frequently • Image browser
Statistics from Google Analytics1 Jan – 30 Aug 2008 • 27,427 visits from 147 countries • 21,408 visitors • 4.77 pages per visit • Average of 2.04 minutes spent • Popular keywords: • kunatite • paxillosida: luidiidae • austronomia
Source of Traffic • Google – 80% • Referring sites – 10% • Direct traffic – 10%
Conclusions • Genuine interest in MV’s scientific collections • Increased public awareness of MV as a holder and custodian of legacy data sets • Increased public awareness of the scope and size of our collections
The Future • History and Technology’s ‘Web Readiness’ project • Indigenous Cultures discussing strategies • Major part of MV’s online strategy • Digitisation • Public access • Storage
Where? • http://collections.museumvictoria.com.au • http://museumvictoria.com.au/ • http://www.collectionsaustralia.net • http://www.google.com
Acknowledgements • Craig Churchill • Collection System Specialist • Online Development • Ken Walker • Deputy Head Sciences (Terrestrial Zoology)