Analysis of SMaSCH Voucher Types
The voucher table in SMaSCH has evolved over time. In the words of Dick Moe: "The voucher concept allows you to invent a category and then associate an accession number with that category, sometimes with additional information stored as well." Some voucher records contain additional information, while others just indicate that the specimen sheet has an annotation about this category of information. Initially it was hoped that images of all specimen sheets would be available and linked to the specimen metadata. Also, "As you can imagine, many of the voucher categories were not used identically by the different data enterers."
Our approach will be to identify voucher information that logically belongs somewhere else, either in an existing CollectionSpace schema or in custom fields that we will add to a schema. Many of these new custom fields will likely be needed by other herbaria and even by other natural history collections, so some indication of broader utility should be included.
Lam performed a count by voucher type to produce the following table.
Count |
Voucher Type |
Defined |
Migration |
Note (and count of non-null descr field) |
149 |
anatomy |
|
|
non-null descr: 13 |
245422 |
annotation history |
Indicates identification annotations on the sheet as a fraction. Demoninator = how many annotations, and numerator = number of different names used. There is an annotation history TABLE that has more complete information and is being used again. |
Might not be useful at all. Maybe keep data though not in the interface. |
non-null: 245394 |
77544 |
associated species |
sometimes contains a list (uncontrolled) of other plants that grew where the specimen grew, and sometimes just indicates that such information is there |
Custom field needed, repeatable. |
non-null: 15320 |
344 |
biotic environment -inactive 7/93 |
|
|
non-null: 5 |
3161 |
biotic interactions |
|
|
non-null: 245 |
56184 |
color |
usually contains information : e.g., "ray flowers fading in the afternoon", "young leaves reddish" |
|
non-null: 55986 |
11305 |
common name |
|
|
non-null: 2039 |
5602 |
cytology |
|
|
non-null: 629 |
43463 |
data in packet |
nearly always indicates that there is an old label or note in a packet on the sheet. |
|
non-null: 825 |
10 |
embryology |
|
|
non-null: 3 |
269 |
ethnobotany |
|
|
non-null: 25 |
281 |
Expedition |
|
|
non-null: 2 |
8 |
fruit removal |
|
|
non-null: 1 |
123 |
genbank code |
|
|
non-null: 123 |
251542 |
habitat |
indicates that there is information associated with habitat on the label or sheet. For the habitat voucher, that information is nearly always transcribed into the database. For example "in dense shade on red clay" |
|
Not controlled vocabulary though some domains have a pick list to help with habitat information. One locality can have multiple habitats. Non-null: 251531 |
3813 |
horticulture |
|
|
non-null: 483 |
2965 |
illustration |
|
|
non-null: 38 |
5370 |
image made |
|
|
non-null: 4035 |
4 |
Insect damage |
|
|
non-null: 4 |
88712 |
macromorphology |
|
|
non-null: 18847 |
2141 |
map |
|
|
non-null: 1157 |
805 |
material removed |
|
|
non-null: 375 |
7327 |
micromorphology |
|
|
non-null: 353 |
3545 |
nomenclature |
|
|
non-null: 9 |
26422 |
none |
|
|
non-null: 2370 |
232 |
nucleic acids |
|
|
non-null: 231 |
16 |
number collision |
|
|
non-null: 16 |
1330 |
odor |
|
|
non-null: 809 |
809 |
other |
|
|
non-null: 809 |
18880 |
other label numbers |
|
|
non-null: 18870 |
4641 |
phenology |
|
|
non-null: 104 |
875 |
photograph |
|
|
non-null: 104 |
15 |
physical enviroment |
|
|
non-null: 15 |
1878 |
physical environment |
|
|
non-null: 1878 |
513 |
physical environment -inactive 7/93 |
|
|
non-null: 4 |
56726 |
population biology |
|
|
non-null: 14321 |
30685 |
publication |
|
|
non-null: 2057 |
7836 |
reference used for determination |
|
|
non-null: 16 |
66913 |
reproductive biology |
|
|
non-null: 7158 |
584 |
secondary product chemistry |
|
|
non-null: 88 |
56 |
SEM (Scanning Electron Micrograph) |
|
|
non-null: 4 |
11355 |
type |
|
|
non-null: 11001 |
98 |
U.C. Botanical Garden |
|
|
non-null: 98 |
25733 |
Vegetation Type Map Project |
|
|
non-null: 25637 |