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<br />LFL COLLECTION POLICIES AND PROCEDURES MANUAL
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<br />more widely recognized fish and herpetological collections. Although MUSE is customized
<br />to the special needs of each individual collection, all versions are based on a standardized
<br />database model for preserved biological collections. This allows collection catalogs that have
<br />been linked to a specially configured MUSE Server to be searched individually or
<br />simultaneously from any computer connected to the Internet (see above under "Access and
<br />Use-Collection Catalog Data").
<br />MUSE catalog data are maintained in two relational database files, "primary.dat" and
<br />"locality.dat". Primary records include specimen or taxon-lot data such as taxon identity
<br />(usually species), number of specimens, and size, whereas locality records cover where, when,
<br />how, and by whom the specimens were collected (Figure 2, Appendix II). Each primary
<br />record is assigned a unique sequential "catalog number" and each locality record a unique
<br />"field number." All primary records for taxa from the same collection are related to the same
<br />locality record by "field number." Each primary record is also linked by taxon name to
<br />taxonomic dictionaries (other relational files) that ensure valid and properly spelled names. A
<br />special MUSE utility called CLIO facilitates taxonomic queries of the catalog at all major
<br />taxonomic levels (e.g., order, family, genus, or species). Changes or corrections to the
<br />identity of specimens in primary records are tracked in a linked taxonomic history file. The
<br />loan status of specimens is automatically updated in primary records whenever changes are
<br />made to loan records.
<br />Descriptions of MUSE database fields; procedures for entering, editing, and browsing
<br />data; printing labels, invoices, and other documents; and processing loans, returns, transfers,
<br />and deaccessions are detailed in the "MUSE Tutorial and Reference Manual" (Humphries
<br />1994). The "MUSE Utilities Reference Manual" (Humphries 1994?) provides instructions for
<br />the use of CLIO and other special utilities for testing, repairing, searching, and outputting
<br />MUSE files. Copies of both documents are maintained by the LFL Collection curator. They
<br />may also be downloaded from the Biodiversity and Biological Collections Web Server
<br />(http://muse.bio.comell.edulmuse/musepdfhtrnl). Appendix II is a list of MUSE, modified,
<br />and special primary and locality database fields used in the LFL Collection Catalog with
<br />descriptions of the data to be entered therein.
<br />Notable limitations of the MUSE program are difficulty in uploading batches of data
<br />already present in other databases (e.g., dBase) and limited built-in querying capabilities. The
<br />numerous data checks and field-content specifications in MUSE make batch uploads from
<br />Ascn or other databases potentially hazardous. MUSE Project staff strongly recommend
<br />keyboard entry of catalog data but will assist when batch data uploads are necessary. Within
<br />MUSE, users can conduct single-field searches of primary records by catalog number,
<br />(taxonomic) group number, genus, species, or field number; locality records can be searched
<br />by field number, country, state, county, and date. For complex queries, searches of non-
<br />indexed fields, and convenient summaries and reports, MUSE requires a separate database
<br />querying and reporting program. Some of these programs can directly access Btrieve data
<br />files (e.g., Xtrieve, Crystal Reports, Access); others require uploads of delimited ASCII output
<br />from MUSE (e.g., dBase, Paradox). Although much less convenient than a program that
<br />directly accesses Btrieve files, LFL periodically uploads most of its MUSE primary and
<br />locality data to corresponding dBase files for queries and database summaries not possible
<br />within MUSE or through special MUSE utilities. Remarks fields, because of their large size,
<br />are treated as separate but linked dBase files. The resulting dBase primary.dbf, locality.dbf,
<br />and lremarks.dbf (locality remarks) files are linked by "fieldnum", and primary.dbf and
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