OSUC Database Structure
Our database began as an implementation of the original information model
developed by the Association for Systematics Collections. Both our database
and that model have since grown, been elaborated, and diverged to
some extent. In total, we are actively using 47 tables. As a means of
understanding the database, we have divided these tables into seven
functional groups:
- Collecting-Unit Cluster
- Tables associated with data that characterize the basic units of the
database, both tangible items (such as specimens) and intangible entities
(e.g., observations or literature records).
- Collecting-Event Cluster
- Tables describing the unique combination of place, time, people, and
methods associated with a collecting-unit.
- Agent Cluster
- Those entities that do things: collect specimens, write papers,
extract DNA, make data entries, etc.
- Taxonomy Cluster
- The Linnean hierarchy, encompassing names - both valid and invalid -
as well as the taxonomic relationships among named taxa.
- Documentation Cluster
- Published and unpublished reference works and the data associated with them.
- Authority Tables
- Look-up tables for static information.
- Integration Tables
- Some information is not directly stored in the database, but does exist
on some computer somewhere. A directory of where to go to find it.
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