Voucher Procedure planning

Notes and plans for addressing the needs around vouchering

Vouchering is the process of preparing materials for a dried specimen sheet for an herbarium. Usually a voucher is a pressed, dried, plant specimen that includes characters necessary for identification and a label detailing where and when it was collected. These specimens are mounted onto acid free paper and can last hundreds of years when protected from insect and environmental damage. Vouchering is an ongoing process; vouchers are often made by graduate student assistants and filed in either the UC or Jepson Herbaria on campus. 

This work is proceeding in the context of preparing a customized instance of CollectionSpace for the UC Botanical Garden. Much of the work is being done by students in a class on campus.

The goal is to extend an existing service, rather than build a new one from scratch. Deliverables include:

• Wireframes for the UX
• Schema defined as an extension of the Loans Out Schema.
• App layer configuration for the procedure (with assistance from Informatics team)
• UI templates and message bundles(with assistance from Informatics team)
• Data mapping (ETL scripts, etc.) to migrate existing SAGE data to the new system

Upcoming activities:

• Gather broader (community) feedback and review of proposed voucher approach, schema, wireframes, etc.

Recent activities:

• Review of wireframes, workflows and schema with Holly Forbes, curator at UCBG, in Wednesday 4 April class.
• Interviews with Holly Forbes, curator at UCBG, on Wednesday 29 Feb in class.
• Review of existing screenshots and schemas for vouchers and related activities (see Resources for class Lecture 10).
• Fit-gap analyses of current SAGE system support for Vouchers with various candidate services (see attached analyses for A4 prepared by students, listed below).
• Review of requirements from related institutions (see Resources for class Lecture 11).

Attachments: