The
MVZ is committed to making its data widely accessible to researchers and the general public. Thus, it was one of the first natural history museums to fully computerize
its specimen collections (1978-84) and to make these data available online (1997). Currently, the Museum uses Arctos as its primary database system. This system is based on a relational data model developed by the MVZ in the 1990s, and is an ongoing collaboration with the University of Alaska Museum and the Museum of Comparative Zoology. Arctos also integrates with BerkeleyMapper, GenBank, CalPhotos, and distributed data networks such as HerpNet, ORNIS, MaNIS, GBIF, and Berkeley Natural History Museums.
In 2005, the MVZ participated in a strategic planning initiative for support of Biodiversity Informatics and Information Technology across the Berkeley Natural History Museums. This effort was joined by the museums and the UC Berkeley Museum Informatics Project/Interactive University. The goal was to discuss and encourage collaborations among the museums and to garner campus-wide support. View the planning weblog.
Informatics projects that involve MVZ people and resources (for more detail, see Current Projects):
| AmphibiaWeb | An online system for free access to information on amphibian biology and conservation. |
| Berkeley Mapper | An application to map spatial information from distributed sources. |
| BioGeomancer | A worldwide collaboration to maximize the quality and quantity of biodiversity data that can be mapped in support of scientific research, planning, conservation, and management. |
| DiGIR Mapper | A web-based Geographic Information Systems (GIS) tool for visualization and analysis of species distributions using specimen data. |
| Digital MVZ | Digital access to metadata and reference data for archived fieldnotes and photographs. |
| DIVA-GIS | Free GIS software for biodiversity research. |
| HerpNET | An international data network of herpetological specimen collections. |
| MaNIS | An international data network of mammal specimen collections. |
| ORNIS | An international data network of avian specimen and non-specimen based institutions. |
| WORLDCLIM | A set of global climate layers for GIS analysis. |
