NMBCC Collection Manager Help

If you are a collection manager, once you have registered and signed in, the My Account page (accessible at the upper right of all NMBCC pages) will give you access to to a link to "Edit My Collection(s) ". You get to this link by selecting it from the drop-down menu after "Select which features of this user account to manage." Here you can edit the Collection Information, manage collaborator level access to the collection and upload data into the collection.

Collection Information

Here is where you enter the information that will be associated with your collection. The Collection Name shows up in the details page. The Collection Display Name is used in the Museum Collection selection tables, notably on the query page and on the About the Data page. The Collection Code is the acronymn you wish to have associated with your collection. The Collection URL is link you provide which will guide people to more information about your collection.

The Collection Notes and Date Dateset Last Modified fields are both used to enter information that will show up on the About the Data page. The Collection Notes should describe the NMBCC data set with respect to the potential data available and any caveats about the data. What would you want someone to know about your data in a single paragraph?

The Date Dataset Last Modified is the last time a record in the NMBCC dataset was created or modified. This shows up in the DS Date field on the About the Data page. This field is useful if a user has already searched a collection in the past and wants to know if the data might have changed since then. The value here will be the same or very close to the value in the Date Uploaded field when the collection is very active. If the collection is static, then this value shows the last time it was worked on and the Date Uploaded essentially tells the user the last date we checked the collection to see if anything has changed.

Manage Collaborator Level Access

Collaborator Level access gives unfiltered access to all of your NMBCC records and fields. Users must request collaborator access through the system. They do this by selecting "My Access Levels" on "My Account" in the drop-down box after "Select which features of this user account to manage" and then choosing your collection. You should get an email letting you know someone has requested collaborator access.

From the Edit Collection tab on your My Account you can see all the users who have collaborator access to your collection. You can demote a user with collaborator level to professional level at any time. Below this you can see any pending requests for collaborator level access. Follow the instructions to either approve or deny each request.

Upload Records

When uploading records, you can either append new records to the existing record set, or replace the existing records with the new record set. The validation process during upload ensures that you cannot inadvertently replace the existing data if your new record set doesn't validate. If you are unsure if your new data are formatted correctly, try uploading the data set or a subsample of the data and see if they validate. Chances are good that if they validate completely, they will be appropriate for data upload.

NMBCC uses a modified version of the Darwin Core for its import protocol. The record set can be tab or comma separated and must have a header row with column names conforming exactly to our Darwin Core field names without any other header info. There may be additional columns of data, but if these do not conform to our Darwin Core field names, they will not be imported (you will be told which fields will and won't upload during the validation process). You can see more information about our transport protocol here.

Steps for upload:

• click the "Browse" button and locate the data file on your hard drive, then click "Upload".
• Your data file must be a comma separated values (CSV) file, or a tab separated values (TSV) file with a header row conforming to elements in our transport protocol (modified Darwin Core)..
• the maximum size of the file you may upload is 100 megabyes. If your file is large, please split it up into multiple files.
• after you click "Upload" it will take several minutes for the data to actually upload to the server (depending on how large your file is, and how fast your connection is). Then our system will test the file for data validity, which will take at least one second for every 1,000 rows of data. Finally, you will be asked to confirm our data validation results. At that point, your old data will be archived and the new data will be imported into the database, which will take quite a while.
• be patient with the process. You will not receive any progress indicators. Your web browser may appear to be "busy" for several minutes. You can still use your computer and your web browser, as long as you use other windows or tabs.

List of Field Names Recognized During an NMBCC Upload:

Supported by a Maii'tsoh Limited DwC 1.21 Export*:
datelastmodified, basisofrecord, institutioncode, collectioncode, catalognumbertext, collector, collectionnumber, fieldnumber, yearcollected, monthcollected, daycollected, verbatimcollectingdate, julianday, highergeography, continentocean, country, stateprovince, county, locality, horizontaldatum, decimallatitude, decimallongitude, verbatimlatitude, verbatimlongitude, minimumelevationinmeters, maximumelevationinmeters, verbatimelevation, scientificname, highertaxon, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species, subspecies, scientificnameauthor, identificationmodifier, coloquialname, identifiedby, yearidentified, typestatus, sex, preparations, individualcount, ageclass, remarks, maiitsohrecid, exportdate, issensitive

Additional fields that can be uploaded, but are not part of a Maii'tsoh Limited DwC 1.21 Export:
catalognumbernumeric, timecollected, fieldnotes, islandgroup, island, originalcoordinatesystem, georefmethod, coordinateuncertaintyinmeters, latlongcomments, minimumdepthinmeters, maximumdepthinmeters, verbatimdepth, monthidentified, dayidentified, tissues, genbanknum, othercatalognumbers, relatedcatalogeditems

*ColloqialName, Decimallatitude, Decimallongitude, MaiitsohRecID, ExportDate, and IsSensitive may not be included in the default Limited DwC1.21 export in older versions of Maii'tsoh, but may be added during export.