Glossary of Terms

ShortName	LongName	URL	Definition
Arctos	Arctos	http://arctos.database.museum/home.cfm	Arctos is an ongoing effort to integrate access to specimen data, collection-management tools, and external resources on the internet. Nearly all that is known about a specimen can be included in Arctos, and, except for some data encumbered for proprietary reasons, data are open to the public. Arctos is a multidisciplinary collection management information system for natural history. It integrates access to diverse types of collections (paleontology, entomology, botany, ornithology, mammalogy, herpetology) and data types, including specimen records, observations, tissues, parasites, stomach contents, fieldnotes and other documents, and media such as images and audio recordings. It also integrates data with projects and publications that either contribute to the collections or that use data from the collections.
DPI	Dots Per Inch	http://www.andrewdaceyphotography.com/articles/dpi/	Used to express the number of ink dots applied to a single inch during printing, the function of individual printer specifications. Often wrongly used as a synynom for PPI (pixels per inch), which see in this glossary.
Geo-referencing	Geo-referencing	http://www.nlbif.nl/news_en/files/BioGeomancerGuide.pdf	The process of assigning geographical coordinates (latitude, longitude, datum, projection, precision) to a biological specimen collection record or event using geospatial data available from the specimen label.
GUID	Globally Unique Identifier	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globally_unique_identifier	A unique reference number used as an identifier in computer software. The term GUID also is used for Microsoft's implementation of the Universally Unique Identifier (UUID) standard. The value of a GUID is represented as a 32-character hexadecimal string, such as {21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}, and is usually stored as a 128-bit integer. The total number of unique keys is 2 to the 128th power, or 3.4x10 to the 38th power. This number is so large that the probability of the same number being generated randomly twice is negligible.
Image Resolution	Image Resolution	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_resolution	A measure of the detail in an image, especially a raster digital image. The higher resolution the more detail available, hence the clearer the image.
NLP	Natural Language Processing	http://www.cnlp.org/publications/03nlp.lis.encyclopedia.pdf	Natural Language Processing (NLP) is the computerized approach to analyzing text that is based on both a set of theories and a set of technologies. It is an area of active research with an array of definitional possibilities. Its potential use for the biocollections community is the analysis, interpretation, and parsing of printed and written label data for insertion into electronic data manage systems.
OCR	Optical Character Recognition	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_character_recognition	A software implemented process for scanning documents or images from scanners or files, recognizing textual components within these objects, and converting textual components into human readable text.
Pixel	Picture Element	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel	In digital imaging, the smallest addressable element or representable unit in an image. Pixels are normally arranged in a two-dimensional grid and often represented using dots. Pixel intensity is variable. In color image systems, a color is typically represented by three or four component intensities such as red, green, and blue, or cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. The more pixels an image contains, the clearer the image and the greater the available zoom intensity.
PPI	Pixels Per Inch	http://www.andrewdaceyphotography.com/articles/dpi/	A measure of the number of pixels in each inch of a digital image at a given size. Each digital image contains a fixed number of pixels. Expanding the image in width reduces PPI; reducing the image in width increases PPI. PPI and DPI are often and incorrectly used interchangeability. See DPI in this glossary.
URI	Uniform Resource Identifier	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_Resource_Identifier	A string of characters used to uniquely (and ideally persistently) identify an object or resource on the Internet. Such identification enables interaction with representations of the resource over a network (typically the World Wide Web) using specific protocols. Schemes specifying a concrete syntax and associated protocols define each URI.