--> Abstract: Geologic Collections on the Information Superhighway, by J. H. Lipps, D. R. Lindberg, and A. Fiorillo; #90958 (1995).

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Abstract: Geologic Collections on the Information Superhighway

Jere H. Lipps, David R. Lindberg, Anthony Fiorillo

The Museum of Paleontology, University of California, Berkeley (UCMP) has its type specimen catalogs on its World Wide Web (WWW) and Gopher computer server for access on the Internet. With over 20 million users on the Internet, certain benefits and problems have arisen. UCMP, computerized its collections in the mid-1960s, and in 1991 downloaded its files to its server to make them available to the scientific community. It's collections database and, increasingly, images of type specimens have been accessed by large numbers of scientific users, land-use planners, environmental assessment companies, and the general public.

The benefits of these on-line services include easy accessibility of UCMP holdings to the scientific community, increased efficiency for specimen loan processing through electronic loan forms, decreased need for loans by providing images, and increased public and scientific awareness of UCMP collections. These holdings are linked to the WWW exhibits, thus emphasizing the bearing of research to museum exhibits.

Problems have been that locality information must be restricted to prevent unauthorized or unethical collecting from know sites, a tremendous increase in server access thus slowing other uses, and increased visibility of UCMP holdings. Locality information is provided on-line to county only; further details may be requested. These requests are treated like a specimen loan--they are given only to recognized institutions when requested by a recognized scientist (or their students). Server volume increased from a few hundred files/day to over 6000 files/day in mid-1994. Additional memory has been purchased continuously to provide this level of access. Increased visibility means that many people and agencies now can readily see what the UCMP holds, and make a variety of non-loan requests anging from casting specimens to returning them to supposed legal owners, leading to additional work.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90958©1995 AAPG Pacific Section Meeting, San Francisco, California