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BG-BASE News

Note: the following text has been taken directly from the Fall 1998 issue of BG-BASE News (Pale Yellow). No attempt has been made to reformat it for use on the web.

BG-BASE News Volume 6, Number 2-3

Version 5 has arrived!

We devote the majority of this special issue of BG-BASE News, published in conjunction with the 5th International Botanic Gardens Conservation Congress (14-18 September, 1998, Kirstenbosch, South Africa) to an overview of the latest version of BG-BASE.

Under continual development since 1985 when it was started on behalf of the Arnold Arboretum, BG-BASE has now been installed in nearly 100 institutions in 16 countries and is used to manage a dizzying range of information by both large and small institutions.

While many of our readers have been using BG-BASE for many years, others are relatively new to the system. We take this opportunity, therefore, to highlight some of the developments that have taken place over the past 13 years and that have lead to BG-BASE being the most widely used application of its kind in the world.

How did we get here?

Since 1985 we have striven to develop an extremely powerful system that integrates and manages the widest possible range of information, information that is of critical importance to the well-being of the institution. Although the early versions dealt exclusively with living collections and people management, that soon changed.

Early versions had fewer than 12 database tables making up the system; today, the number exceeds 200. The system has not grown merely for the sake of getting bigger, however. Throughout, its development has been guided by the increasingly large user base, which collectively asks more and more kinds of questions, questions that would have been unanswerable in 1985. The users, therefore, are what drive the continuing development of the system.

Guiding philosophies

There can be no more important kind of information to an institution than the information it maintains on its collections. If we accept that premise, then we have a responsibility to maintain and curate that information efficiently, consistently, and in an international context. This is especially important when the collections we maintain are of conservation significance.

We have chosen to work cooperatively with as many institutions around the world as are interested in collaborating on a standard data model and methodology. Working collaboratively has some important spin-offs:

• best practices - no one has all the good ideas; this applies to collections and information management as well as it does to other endeavors; we can all learn from each other's ideas and experiences
• shared costs - databases are expensive to design and support; sharing these on-going costs is much more cost-effective than each institution bearing these costs individually
• consistent upgrades - databases need to adapt to new requirements; a large user base provides the necessary impetus to do this
• support - primary BG-BASE supports comes from BG-BASE, Inc., but with a large body of users around the world, various formal and informal networks are evolving through which users are helping one another
• compatibility - sharing a single database design results in a much greater degree of compatibility between institutions holding similar kinds of data.

Working collaboratively presents some special challenges, too - how do you maintain a standard model while still allowing for special, individual needs? We do so through variable-length field architecture and user-defined fields, each of which is discussed later.

How did we get here?

Since 1985 we have striven to develop an extremely powerful system that integrates and manages the widest possible range of information, information that is of critical importance to the well-being of the institution. Although the early versions dealt exclusively with living collections and people management, that soon changed.

Early versions had fewer than 12 database tables making up the system; today, the number exceeds 200. The system has not grown merely for the sake of getting bigger, however. Throughout, its development has been guided by the increasingly large user base, which collectively asks more and more kinds of questions, questions that would have been unanswerable in 1985. The users, therefore, are what drive the continuing development of the system.

Guiding philosophies

There can be no more important kind of information to an institution than the information it maintains on its collections. If we accept that premise, then we have a responsibility to maintain and curate that information efficiently, consistently, and in an international context. This is especially important when the collections we maintain are of conservation significance.

We have chosen to work cooperatively with as many institutions around the world as are interested in collaborating on a standard data model and methodology. Working collaboratively has some important spin-offs:

• best practices - no one has all the good ideas; this applies to collections and information management as well as it does to other endeavors; we can all learn from each other's ideas and experiences
• shared costs - databases are expensive to design and support; sharing these on-going costs is much more cost-effective than each institution bearing these costs individually
• consistent upgrades - databases need to adapt to new requirements; a large user base provides the necessary impetus to do this
• support - primary BG-BASE supports comes from BG-BASE, Inc., but with a large body of users around the world, various formal and informal networks are evolving through which users are helping one another
• compatibility - sharing a single database design results in a much greater degree of compatibility between institutions holding similar kinds of data.

Working collaboratively presents some special challenges, too - how do you maintain a standard model while still allowing for special, individual needs? We do so through variable-length field architecture and user-defined fields, each of which is discussed later.

What does version 5 do?

BG-BASE is primarily designed to mange a huge range of information concerning living and preserved collections. Most institutions holding biological collections ask six basic questions:

• What do we have?
• Who supplied/collected it?
• When did we get it?
• How healthy is it?
• Where is it in the collection?
• Why do we have it?

But, as will be evident from the information below, BG-BASE version 5 does much more than simply answer these basic questions. BG-BASE literally extends from the ecosystem to the gene. It is designed to integrate seemingly disparate data sets so that there is a consistent interface to the institution's data. BG-BASE thus can function as the central repository - the "institutional memory".

Not all users have the same needs, of course, so BG-BASE is designed to be modular; each module works as a unit by itself, but each also interacts with other modules. Users can add new BG-BASE modules as the demand arises, being assured that all modules are compatible with one another. Currently there are 'full' modules for:

• Living collections
• Preserved collections
• Conservation
• Education
• Membership/development

Additionally, there are 'add-on' modules that add functionality for those who require it. These add-on modules depend on one or more of the full modules:

• Calendar (requires one or more of the above modules)
• HTML export (requires Living or Preserved collections modules)
• Images (requires one or more of the above modules)
• Propagations (requires Living collections module)

Although most users utilize the Living Collections module, others do not have such collections to manage and use BG-BASE to run their herbarium, manage their library, or keep track of students.

Field-based data capture

One of the most exciting recent developments within BG-BASE is its ability to support data capture in the field. This is extremely important for field-based inventories and stock-taking, tasks that most institutions undertake on a regular basis.

The links with hand-held barcode readers were first developed in 1997 at the request of Kings Park and Botanic Garden (Perth, Western Australia), who report that this feature has greatly speeded up the process of stock-taking both in the living collections on the grounds as well as in their propagation facilities. The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh has also adopted this technology.

The system works by first asking for the user's initials (used by BG-BASE to identify who created and modified each record in the system) as well as to confirm today's date. Although the Australian and Scottish versions vary slightly, the system then gives users the chance to choose which kind of file to update (PLANTS or PROPAGATIONS) and then prompts for all the appropriate fields for updating a record in those files. When barcoded labels have been produced (either pre-printed or produced directly from within BG-BASE), they can be read directly by the device, or the user can type in the appropriate numbers.

Once the stock-taking has been completed, the device is brought back to a base station where its contents are downloaded, a process that takes only a few seconds. The last step is to merge the downloaded data with the institutional master copy of BG-BASE. If the user has been careful about location codes, spelling, etc., then this last step is also very quick; but if there are errors, these need to be corrected before the data can be safely uploaded to BG-BASE itself.

Another type of field-based data capture is used when collecting material in the wild. In this case, a stand-alone copy of BG-BASE is created, including look-up tables for scientific names, collecting localities, etc. This copy is placed on a portable computer and taken on the collecting trip. All wild collecting details can be entered into the COLL.BOOKS file, either as the specimens are collected or (more likely) in the evening as the specimens are being pressed and prepared. Thus, the COLL.BOOKS file serves as an electronic field notebook. When the user(s) return to the home institution (or the data can be emailed or sent via diskette before the people arrive home), the data in COLL.BOOKS are copied into the master copy of BG-BASE.

This allows virtually instantaneous accessioning of living and preserved material. This can be especially important for quarantine and propagation material, where waiting for hand-written field notes to be transcribed can cause unacceptable delays in accessioning. In addition, having the wild-collection information available helps the horticulturists determine the best way to care for the plants.

BG-BASE and the Web

Other BG-BASE institutions have since followed suit, releasing their collections in the format they desire. This has led to a further refinement of the HTML module so that it now supports multi-site Web searches. This multi-site search capability results in a "virtual collection".

Currently the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens and Arboretum, Holden Arboretum, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Royal Horticultural Society and World Conservation Monitoring Centre have joined their information in this manner; the Arnold Arboretum, Morris Arboretum and U.S. National Arboretum will also soon become part of the virtual collection. You can go to any of their sites to search not only their catalog but also the catalogs of the others as well. Using the HTML module in version 5, any existing BG-BASE site could make its collections part of this virtual collection as well. Try out this exciting new capability at:

http://www.rbge.org.uk/forms/multisite.html

Publishing from the database

Databases, like the collections they support, represent large, long-term institutional investments and should be able to be used in a wide variety of contexts to accomplish many tasks from pure data management to inter-pretation to publication.

BG-BASE has been used by many institutions to publish a wide variety of things, including catalogs of their holdings, taxonomic listings, conservation assessments, and listings of suppliers. These publications can be direct-to-page or they can involve desktop publishing software to do the final page layout and formatting.

In 1998 the University of Oxford Botanic Garden celebrated the 350th anniversary of its first catalog by using BG-BASE to publish a new catalog of its living collections.

Curating collections

Once the basic information has been put into BG-BASE, it can then be used as a powerful curatorial tool, helping address diverse issues such as compliance with national laws and international treaties, achievement of accessions policies and goals, etc. (However, the quality of the answers given by the system reflect he quality and quantity of information entered, of course.).

Another area in which the database can be an extremely useful tool involves insuring collections. For example, the Morris Arboretum uses BG-BASE to keep careful track of how much specimens are worth, and after the devastation caused by Hurricane Andrew in 1992, Fairchild Tropical Garden and Montgomery Foundation used their BG-BASE data to successfully bid for disaster relief funds from FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency).

Horticultural maintenance

Horticultural and maintenance tasks can be tracked for specific activities that an institution undertakes. These can be plant-specific (pruning, spraying, cabling, fertilizing) or more general in nature (washing pots, equipment maintenance, painting). Tasks are user-defined and can be as broad or as specific as an institution desires, and there is no limit to the number of tasks that can be defined. If appropriate, these tasks can be linked to individual plants within a collection, entire genera in a collection, or to all plants within a specific location. The system also tracks the date the task was requested, date completed, who requested the task, and who completed the task.

Materials used during each task (fertilizer, mulch, pesticides) can also be tracked. Each "material" record includes a description of the material itself, the unit of measurement used in applying/using the material (ounces, gallons, bags), and the cost of each unit of measurement applied (5 cents per ounce, 10 pounds per gallon). The cost and quantity used for each material can then be calculated and recorded for each plant. In addition, labor hours and costs are now being tracked, even if it took more than one individual to complete a task, and even if those individuals are paid at different rates.

The above functionality allows you to answer such questions as:

• "What maintenance have we done to an individual plant over the last 4 years?"
• "How much has it cost to maintain this individual plant to date?"
• "How much did we spend to maintain the Crataegus collection last year?"
• "What is the total cost and quantity of fertilizers used so far this year?'
• "Who has spent the most time washing pots, and how much has it cost?"
• "Which plants were pruned in 1997?"

Herbarium specimens

Several aspects of the Preserved Collections module have been significantly enhanced in version 5. One difference lies in how the system handles label names, filing names and determinations made on preserved specimens. Creating a determination record from within a specimen record now dynamically updates the specimen record to reflect the correct filing name; also, you can choose a filing name different from the label name quite separately from a determination; this latter capability is important when you have adopted or rejected a taxonomic concept and wish to re-file one or more specimens under a different name.

Other enhancements to this module include the ability to produce user-defined loan forms, loan request letters, packing lists, lists of outstanding items and exchange statistics.

Zoological specimens

Recent work in the Dominican Republic and Cuba resulted in several improvements in the Preserved Collections module, as BG-BASE can now track amphibians, birds, fish, insects, mammals, and reptiles much more efficiently. A new animals-only entry screen was designed for the NAMES file, and several fields were added to both NAMES and SPECIMENS as well. While BG-BASE is still botanically oriented, the system can be readily adopted for use within small to medium-sized natural history museums, especially as we continue to add these enhancements. We would like to especially thank our Caribbean colleagues for their input and assistance with this work.

Sequence data

Molecular systematics is an increasingly important tool used throughout the world not only to elucidate phylogenetic relationships but also to help set conservation priorities. BG-BASE can be used to link information on nucleotide sequences to the specific living or preserved specimens from which they were derived. This turns the molecular studies undertaken on a collection from an academic exercise to a powerful curatorial and conservation tool.

User-defined fields

Each major BG-BASE database table has between 5 and 10 user-defined fields (UDFs). These UDFs can be used for any specific institutional needs not catered for by the standard fields. In version 5, UDFs have been enhanced so that users can define their own help screens, entry window labels and edit patterns.

Variable-length fields

BG-BASE's design is based on database platforms that support variable-length field technology. Unlike most databases, which only support fixed-length fields, BG-BASE fields can vary in length from 1 to 65,535 characters. This has two very important implications:

• no space is wasted if the value to be stored is shorter than an arbitrarily chosen, pre-determined length
• long text strings never need to be truncated

Since storage space is not wasted if a field is not used, it has been possible to create a large data model containing thousands of fields; these fields are available when you need to use them, but you are not penalized if you do not use them. This allows us to create a single, all-inclusive data model, with each site using as much or as little of the system as required.

Help

Each field in BG-BASE has always provided context-sensitive help at virtually all parts of the system. In version 5, this field-specific help has been enhanced by a much enlarged glossary and "How do I?" section. In addition, users can create non-English help if they desire. If non-English help is available, the user uses the LANGUAGE command to switch the language in which help is displayed.

DELTA

One of the most interesting new developments within BG-BASE is its support of DELTA (Descriptive Language for Taxonomy), an internationally agreed standard for coding taxonomic descriptions. The DELTA functionality was needed by Kings Park and Botanic Garden to accomplish an enormous project - to create a database listing over 100 horticultural and ecological characteristics of plants native to Western Australia. DELTA allows users to create their own fields (characters) and edit patterns (character states); linked as it is to BG-BASE, this provides BG-BASE users with unparalleled flexibility. The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) has also adopted DELTA technology to handle information it tracks in BG-BASE on its horticultural trials.

People management

Institutions are not just about collections - they are about people as well. BG-BASE manages a wide range of people-related information in its Membership/Development and Education modules. Included here is the ability to manage work/home addresses, phones, faxes, membership status, giving histories, courses offered, courses taken, facilities management, bookings and institutional/personal calendars.

Development and support

BG-BASE used to be the sole responsibility of one individual who had another, full-time job. It is now being developed and supported by three (soon to be four) individuals working at two user sites - The Holden Arboretum (Kirtland, OH, USA) and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (Scotland, UK).

Where do we go from here?

It should be obvious from the above that databases in general and BG-BASE in particular will continue to change, to grow, to become even more powerful.

To that end, BG-BASE will be converted to a Windows® platform, using an extremely powerful database management system called OpenInsight (OI). (see the Spring, 1998 edition of BG-BASE News for more details). OI has the same features that set BG-BASE's existing database platform apart from the others - variable-length fields and multi-value fields. These features are essential to support the highly integrative and complex data model that underlies the system.

Other news ...

AABGA Annual Meeting

The 8th annual North American BG-BASE users meeting was held at the Scott Arboretum on June 18, 1998, in conjunction with the American Association of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta (AABGA) annual conference in Philadelphia. It was great to see so many of you there! The one hour lunch-time session was attended by ca 35 people, consisting of an equal mix of current users and other people interested in learning more about the software. In addition to a demonstration of BG-BASE version 5, future directions and initiatives were also discussed.

This year's meeting marked a first in that Rob Cubey, who has been with the BG-BASE "team" in Edinburgh for 3 years, attended the meeting. We are delighted that most of you were able to meet Rob directly. This year also marked a first in that we staffed a booth in the exhibitor's hall, which we shared with Mark Glicksman of BG-Map. The response was overwhelming, as many of you witnessed! We definitely plan to host a booth at next year's meeting as well, which will be held the week of June 29-July 3, 1999, in Vancouver, B.C., Canada, in conjunction with the AABGA annual conference. Plan now to attend! Many thanks to Andrew Bunting and other Scott Arboretum staff for their assistance this year.

AABGA Midwest Regional Meeting

A session entitled "Collections Documentation using BG-BASE and BG-Map" was presented at the Midwest Regional AABGA meeting July 18th, 1998, at the Michigan State University campus. Speakers included Ethan Johnson (Plant Recorder, Holden Arboretum), Sue Katz (Collections Supervisor, Montgomery Botanical Center), and Mike O'Neal (co-developer, BG-BASE). Demonstrations of both BG-BASE and BG-Map were presented to approximately 25 attendees. Many thanks to Frank Telewski, Jeff Wilson, and other MSU staff for their help.

Horticultural Taxonomy Symposium

At the Third International Symposium on the Taxonomy of Cultivated Plants held in Edinburgh in July, Kerry Walter and Robert Cubey gave demonstrations of BG-BASE and also presented a paper entitled "Think globally, act locally: Using BG-BASE to manage collections data in an international context." The ca 180 attendees came from 28 countries and represented disciplines ranging from patent law to national collection holders.

Information assessment in the D.R.

In August, Mike O'Neal and Kerry Walter conducted a several-day information assessment of 3 institutions holding biological collections in the Dominican Republic; this was carried out on behalf of the Center for Marine Conservation and involved the Jardin Botanico Nacional "Dr. Rafael M. Moscoso", Grupo Jaragua (an NGO), and the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural de Santo Domingo. The resulting report will be used by CMC's Mike Smith to ascertain the level of funding that might be necessary for D.R. institutions to complete the documentation of their collections from the biologically rich island of Hispaniola. In addition to the information assessments themselves, the week included a 2 day workshop on information management.

Native Plants Conservation Initiative

In July, BG-BASE, Inc. joined the Native Plants Conservation Initiative led by Peggy Olwell of the U.S. National Park Service. We will be chairing the information management sessions during the next NPCI meetings in January 1999.

Belize National Herbarium

BG-BASE was installed at the Belize National Herbarium in December 1996, a project funded by U.K. Darwin Initiative Starting in February 1997 and continuing for 6 months, over of the herbarium's specimens were entered into the system (specimen data supplied in electronic form from The New York Botanical Garden were also incorporated into the database). A report by Ramon Vargas and Keith Shawe presents the following facts about the specimens in Belize:

• the 5,042 specimens in the database represent 2,054 species - 60% of those known for Belize
• on average, there are 4 specimens per taxon
• there is only 1 specimen in the herbarium for 52% of the species
• there are 84 types in the herbarium
• there are 52 specimens of 25 threatened taxa from Belize, 44% of the total threatened taxa for the country
• nearly 25% of the specimens were collected by W.A. Schipp, making this herbarium one of the most important repositories of his specimens

This is an excellent example of a relatively small institution using BG-BASE as a strong curatorial tool to document the critical importance of its collection.

Recent installations

• Frederik Meijer Gardens (April, 1998) This combination sculpture park and botanical garden is located in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Opened in 1995 and consisting of 70 acres, specialty areas include the 5-storey, 15,000 ft2 Lena Meijer Conservatory (featuring a butterfly house, Arid garden, and Victorian garden ) and the Frey Boardwalk and Wege Nature Trail. Also displayed throughout the grounds are over 50 world-famous bronze sculptures crafted by artists such as Marshall Fredericks, Andre Harvey, Kirk Newman, and Gary Price, among others. Data from a dBASE III system developed in-house was converted into BG-BASE prior to the installation. For more information, visit the Frederik Meijer Gardens web page at www.meijergardens.org

• Regional Parks Botanic Garden (May, 1998) Established in 1940 in Tilden Regional Park, located in the hills just north Berkeley, California, this 10 acre garden is dedicated to the collection, growth, display, and preservation of the native plants of California. The garden's unique location in Wildcat Canyon provides a vast range of habitats in which to grow plants; in fact, the garden is divided into 10 geographically distinct sections, each representative of specific floristic regions found throughout the state. Notable collections include conifers, oaks, and perhaps the most complete collection of California Manzanita and Ceanothus found anywhere. The garden is also a member of the Center for Plant Conservation and contains over 300 taxa listed in the Inventory of Rare and Endangered Vascular Plants of California, published by the California Native Plant Society.

• Polly Hill Arboretum (May 1998) This newly-opened public garden is located in West Tisbury, Massachusetts, on Martha's Vineyard. The arboretum's benefactor, Polly Hill, still resides on the grounds and continues to be active in the garden's development. Formerly a sheep farm, the property was purchased by Polly's family in 1926, and over the years has been converted into a botanical and horticultural landmark on the Vineyard. Today the garden consists of 20 acres under cultivation with an additional 40 acres preserved as natural woodland. The role of the garden will be to determine plants that can be successfully grown on the Vineyard, to develop and introduce new plants, and to provide a sanctuary for species threatened in the wild. An existing dBASE IV system was converted into BG-BASE, and the Arnold Arboretum generously provided its NAMES and DS files.

BG-BASE Advanced Training Seminars

The sixth U.S. BG-BASE Advanced Training Seminar will be held April 18-19, 1999. (The training sessions for October 18-19, 1998, have been filled) Two days will be spent exploring the "nooks and crannies" of BG-BASE, focusing on little-known techniques and short-cuts. Much of the time will be spent working at TCL and on report-writing. All participants are provided with their own computer with copies of data from each institution. Space is limited to five registrants and there is a registration fee. Contact Mike O'Neal at The Holden Arboretum for more information. Note: If your institution would be interested in hosting an Advanced Training Seminar, please let us know!

NOTE: BG-BASE users who have a support agreement also receive Tech Tips, a two-page insert to BG-BASE News containing additional tips and techniques for interacting with the system.