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New term - preservationMethod
Looking into the GBIF data it appears that dwc:preparations is used to capture 2 distinct pieces of information, the preservation method and the part of the organism being stored.
A new term "preservationMethod" is requested to capture the one part. NCD has created a vocabulary for preservation methods in the TDWG ontology that could be used as a recommended vocabulary: http://rs.tdwg.org/ontology/voc/Collection#SpecimenPreservationMethodTypeTerm
preservationMethod definition
The process or technique used to prevent physical deterioration of non-living collections. Recommended best practice is to use a controlled vocabulary such as the NCD Specimen Preservation Method Type Term vocabulary.
Examples
dried; driedAndPressed; fluidPreserved; frozen; pinned
Top 50 values found in preparations in GBIF as of last week. In green the preservation method, the part of the organism in orange:
Andy Bentley is leading a group to determine how best to capture information about collection objects, and their preservation methods and histories.
This proposal requires a new term change request using the template in the [Guidelines for contributing] (https://github.com/tdwg/dwc/blob/master/.github/CONTRIBUTING.md). there has been demand from multiple sources, though not captured in this issue. Documented demand would be useful.
I had proposed a preparation extension to Darwin Core to capture the varied information currently captured in the preparation field. It is usually a concatenation of various pieces of information and is more than just the preservation method and part of the organism. In some cases (for lot based collections), it also contains a count as well as who prepared it, date of preparation, original fixation, historic preservation, etc. I am afraid I never made much headway with this (kept falling to the bottom of my to-do list) but would be interested in reinvigorating it if others are interested. Attached is an Excel file that we worked on with proposed terms, and a PPT presentation I gave as part of Darwin Core hour Preparation extension field list.xlsx Darwin Core Hour 04a - Evolution of Darwin Core Terms and Extensions_ two extant examples for community input.pptx. Happy to discuss further with interested parties.
It makes sense to have an extension to capture complex preparation details. But I would still argue that DwC should provide at least 2 separate terms for what organism part has been collected/stored and how it was prepared so this can be shared in a simple, flat view. Both are vital information for users.
I agree with the need for two terms. I was just hoping to keep preparations for the organism part part. ;-) Maybe it would be a lot easier to coin the two new terms after all and leave preparations as it is - a sort of verbatim field that doesn't try to have a controlled vocabulary.
On Thu, Sep 10, 2020 at 4:19 AM Markus Döring [email protected] wrote:
It makes sense to have an extension to capture complex preparation details. But I would still argue that DwC should provide at least 2 separate terms for what organism part https://github.com/tdwg/dwc/issues/3 has been collected/stored and how it was prepared so this can be shared in a simple, flat view. Both are vital information for users.
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I think that, along with Issue #3, these proposals would benefit from a Task Group.
Related issues are Issue #3, Issue #24 (reopened because of renewed interest), Issue #314, Issue #332, Issue #344, Issue #345, Issue #346, and Issue #347.