Collections Management Systems
Collections Management Systems
This wiki provides an update to iDigBio's 2012 resource, Biological Collections Databases, Tools, and Data Publication Portals.
iDigBio gathers information about collections management system (CMS) options to share with the natural history collections community, both as an online resource available to anyone, and as a reference specifically for participants in our Digitization Academy courses. We have asked representatives of each CMS to respond to a survey containing a standard set of questions, which we believe can be helpful for potential new users comparing CMS options. These surveys, as well as additional resources, are organized by CMS option (alphabetically) below.
If you are a CMS representative and wish to be added to this list, or to update the information here, please contact Erica Krimmel (ekrimmel@fsu.edu).
Arctos
BRAHMS
BRAHMS is database software for managing natural history collections, botanic gardens, seed banks, field surveys, taxonomic research and biogeographic study.
CollectionSpace
CollectionSpace is a community-supported collections management solution for museums and other collecting organizations, providing standards-based collections management workflows, robust tools to store and describe a wide variety of digital assets, unlimited user licenses, and a public collections browser. An organizational home for CollectionSpace is provided by LYRASIS, a unique non- profit membership organization and trusted service provider for hundreds of cultural heritage organizations. LYRASIS is home to 10 community-supported programs, providing support, strategic direction and community management, while also representing new programs for the future health of LYRASIS and the thousand-plus members and partners we represent through our Research & Innovation Division.
Overview of CollectionSpace (video, 2021)
CollectiveAccess
CollectiveAccess is a highly configurable collections management system suitable for use in a wide range of disciplines, from anthropology to art history to paleontology to corporate archives. CollectiveAccess includes a range of preconfigured “profiles” for various use cases and standards, including DarwinCore, SPECTRUM and VRA.
EarthCape
EMu
The EMu Collections Management System has been at the forefront of collections management for more than three decades. Comprehensive and flexible, EMu can accommodate the requirements of any collecting institution.
Axiell presentation for iDigBio (video, 2021)
Specify
Specify Software handles the curatorial processing and publishing of data associated with specimens in biological collections, including museums, herbaria, and biorepositories of tissue and DNA samples. Specify manages data for collections management tasks associated with museum transactions and mobilizes collections data through the Specify Web Portal, and through IPT to caches such as GBIF and iDigBio. Specify 7 also integrates through APIs with aggregators and online services for retrieving records of information related to specimen catalog entries.
Extending Specify for a New Biological Collections Computing Paradigm (video, 2021)
Symbiota
Symbiota is an adaptable, customizable software that enables self-defined and self-governed communities of practice to form, collaborate, and produce globally integrated, high- quality biodiversity data resources. Symbiota is ideal for small- to medium-sized collections that lack IT support and resources. Symbiota has also been used to create location-based data portals (e.g., http://www.cal-ibis.org/) and institutional management systems across collections (e.g. https://bellatlas.umn.edu). Data in web-based Symbiota portals can be instantly searchable via public search features, and there are many tools to connect these data to other collections and to aggregators (e.g., iDigBio, GBIF).
Introduction to Symbiota (video, 2021)
TaxonWorks
TaxonWorks (TW) is a web-based serving taxonomists, biodiversity scientists, natural history collections and more. It allows you to capture, organize, and enrich your taxonomic, nomenclature, collections, and bibliographic source data; share it with collaborators; and package it for analysis and publication. The software has been in production for over 5 years and is very actively updated by a core team of 5 with numerous other community and internal contributions. Anyone in the world can and is encouraged to contribute to the open source code base, https://github.com/SpeciesFileGroup/taxonworks. Talk with us and the TW community on gitter (https://gitter.im/SpeciesFileGroup/taxonworks).
The Museum System
Gallery Systems specializes in developing and implementing management systems for cultural collections, content and media. We currently work with almost 800 museums and cultural heritage collections worldwide of all sizes and types, managing collections ranging from art to natural history and costumes to archives.