Illinois—NC Collaborative Environment for Botanical Resources Project

May 16, 2002 Meeting Minutes 3:00 p.m. – 4:45 p.m. Manning Hall Room 208

 

 

ATTENDANCE:   Evelyn Daniel, Jane Greenberg, David Knight, Mary Ruvane, Stephen Seiberling, Kristin Taverna, Emily Warmoth, Peter White.

 

INTRODUCTION

·        Mary Ruvane was introduced as the new project manager for INC.  Mary recently completed her MSIS at SILS and will be continuing her studies this fall in the SILS PhD program.  Mary's area of interest is Geographical Information Systems (GIS).

 

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS

·        Peter announced that Alan Weakley will be the eighth curator at the NCU Herbarium.  His starting date will be June 15.

·        Peter invited all present to attend an Open House in honor of Alan on July 2nd at NCBG.

 

 

ASK THE EXPERT MODULE (PIC)

·        Emily Warmoth presented updates made to the "Ask The Expert" module on the Plant Information Center website <http://www.ibiblio.org/pic/askexpert/askexpert.php>.  Her outstanding work on this and her Master's paper project were commended.

Items Remaining For Discussion:

1.      Should a Global Privacy Statement be incorporated for the entire website? Or just displayed when users interact with the "Ask the Expert" or "Botanical Pride" pages?

 

Action Items:

1.      HTML formatting tips should include the text style (e.g., font type, size) and code for italics.

2.      A password needs to be added for access to the Botanist update page.

3.      Peter will coordinate getting an official e-mail address for receiving "Ask the Expert" inquiries. Currently user questions are being routed to Emily's e-mail account.  Mary Ruvane will coordinate updating the link accordingly.

4.      Evelyn requested a PIC page be included with links to Master's papers related to the project.

5.      Emily should provide PIC website location information and assist Mary with acquiring update permission.

 

 

STEVE SEIBERLING ACTIVITIES UPDATE

·        Steve presented his progress on the KEY TO THE GYMNOSPERMS OF SE US web pages.  He is complete to the genus level, and in nine cases to the species level.  Steve expects Pinus (13 species) will be the most challenging as Brenda Wichmanns'  key doesn’t work as well to distinguish these trees; Picea (spruces – 3 species) may also be difficult.  After a little more work he'll have a better idea on the effort remaining to get to species level.  He estimates progress on the key to be nearly halfway complete. 

·        We are up to date on Database entries.

·        In the next few days Steve expects to complete about 50 images: hickory (Carya)  & walnuts (Juglans)

 

Action Items:

1.      Steve will send a list of the typical data he captures when documenting each image (e.g., pixels, date image taken, source, etc.) to Jane & David for review.

2.      Steve would like to add a scale bar to images for better orientation.  Nine scales are currently employed. Peter thought this was a good idea; Evelyn agreed.

3.      Evelyn suggested separating the first page text from the initial pictures, adding a date to each page, providing a 'back' link from each page following the PIC site format, and linking the new hand lens icon back to an explanation.

4.      Upon finalization of the glossary terms Steve will create links from his pages as requested.

 

 

GLOSSARY WORK

·        Kristin presented a summary of her work on the PIC dictionaries.  The 'Student Botanical Dictionary' is missing 45 useful terms and includes some that are irrelevant.  The 'Botanical Dictionary' is the ideal place for incorporating IMLS matrix terms not defined elsewhere.  The 'Technical Plant Glossary' is not a PIC specific file, therefore does not allow for editing. An advantage to using this glossary is its links to illustrations we have copyright permission for, which may prove useful in the Collaborative Environment for Botanical Resources (CEBR) project. 

·        See Kristin's 'Summary of work on the PIC dictionaries' dated April 29, 2002 for more information (attached)

Items Remaining For Discussion:

1.      Should a search feature be added to the glossary sections?  Jane suggested adding a grep box. Who should this task be assigned to if desired?

2.      How should credit for glossary terms be incorporated/documented within web pages?

 

Action Items:

1.      Update the glossaries based on Kristin's work.  Kristin will forward documents to Mary Ruvane for coordinating revisions.

2.      Create internal links, within definitions, for terms requiring further explanation.

3.      Lesley Deem will be consulted regarding illustration copyright issues.

4.      Change 'VASCULAR PLANT SYSTEM' to read 'VASCULAR PLANT SYSTEMATICS' on http://www.ibiblio.org/botnet/glossary/vasc.html for the Technical Plant Glossary.  Add additional information differentiating the three glossaries especially for the Technical one as it’s organized differently.  Change “A couple” in first line to “three”

5.      Correct misspellings in body of text throughout glossary web pages.

6.      Kristin will continue with data entry over the summer to complete missing items.

 

 

JANE GREENBERG UPDATE

·        Jane is working on getting an OAI (Open Architecture Initiative) module installed to facilitate resource sharing among team members

·        Lesley visit – focus to be on imaging & project management. Date and TBD.

·        Trip to Urbana scheduled for Thursday and Friday, June 20-21, 2002.  Trip participants will include Jane, Evelyn, possibly Alan Weakley (new Herb director) in place of Peter, and Steve Seiberling. 

 

 

 

MISCELLANEOUS ISSUES

Action Items:

1.      Kristin & Steve had a concern regarding the new XML forms data entry fields.  Some items appeared to be missing, while others they thought had been eliminated.  Steve and Kristin will share their questions with project team members at both UNC and Urbana via the OpenKeyAdmin listserv and when the points are resolved, David will update the XML form.
 

2.      Peter would like everyone to look at the Computer Science project website and make comments on useful features.  He particularly liked the measuring tool and field notes. See http://www.cs.unc.edu/~hedlund/comp145/homes/botgarden/index.shtml.

 

 

NEXT MEETING:  June 3rd, Videoconference with Illinois. 12 noon EST/11:00 a.m. CST (time to be confirmed).