Mandala

Mandala is a suite of 23 interrelated database tables (see Overview and Model), which uses the cross-platform database application, FileMaker Pro. Mandala supports four major realms of data acquisition and management for systematics and biodiversity studies: specimens, literature, taxonomic names, and illustrations.1

 Mandala data acquisition and management2

Description

Mandala can be used to:3

• track museum loans, specimens, bulk samples & their subsamples;
• detail the complex history of a taxonomic name;
• export a multitude of data for phenological plots, specimens examined lists, and distribution maps;
• provide direct URLs to GenBank records;
• catalogue images and illustrations;
• store and link literature to appropriate taxonomic names, specimens, illustrations, and collecting localities; and
• record numerous details about individual specimens including a literal transcription of the label(s), enhanced locality and collecting event data as interpreted from the label(s), taxonomic determination history, physical condition of the specimen and how it has been preserved, ecological/biological associations with other collected specimens or other taxa associated but not collected, type designation, and other relevant information.

Mandala is a research tool and data manager. New data may be constantly added, enhanced, and updated. Ongoing structural changes from user requests facilitate data input and enhance ease of output. Data in Mandala may be in various stages of verification and completeness.

Specimens in Mandala have unique numbers that are linked to taxonomic names, localities and collecting events, illustrations, literature, associated specimens, other associated organisms, ecological and behavioural observations via a controlled vocabulary, biogeographic regions, loan and deposit information from collections, determinations, and a wealth of other characteristics about the physical specimen itself, including sex, mounted state, dissections, GENBANK Accession Numbers and URLs, developmental stage collected and in collection, and pupation and emergence dates.

The taxonomic names file (TAXA) allows the user to document all facets of name use, including references verifying that use. The history of a taxonomic name can be extremely complex, requiring the attention of a professional systematist, yet a taxonomic record does not need to be complete to be functional e.g., attaching a working name to a specimen. The construction of Mandala allows not only the tracking of valid and invalid taxonomic names but also of working, manuscript, and in press names. The relational framework of Mandala allows the automatic display of homonyms as well as a full synonymic list of names linked to any valid name, which may be exported for nomenclatural catalogues.

Created as part of a systematics project on stiletto flies (Insecta: Diptera: Therevidae), the development of Mandala was funded by the National Science Foundation's Partnerships for Enhancing Expertise in Taxonomy programs, the NSF-sponsored Fiji Bioinventory of Arthropods and the Schlinger Foundation. It was developed by Gail Kampmeier. 4

Function

• Data management
  • Data validating – taxonomy, geography, duplication
  • Georeferencing – applying latitude and longitude
• Taxonomy
• Provider interaction
  • Data preparation
• User interface
  • Personal and institutional
  • Raw data and visual presentation

Why use this tool?

• Georeferencing
• Data management
• Webserver options 5

Who will use this tool?

• Data creation
  • Experts - taxonomy
• Data capture
  • Curators – specimens, identification
• Data providers
  • Institutions
  • Private collections
• Data users
  • Expert
  • Interest groups

How will the tool be used?

• Desktop application
• Windows or Mac, Filemaker Pro 7/8.x
• Access online Gazetteers and Taxonomic Names Servers
• User input required

Where in the data chain could this tool be used?

• User’s machine

When could this tool be used?

• Before data is made available to ALA
• As a post process, after data is with the user

Availability

• Mandala: http://www.inhs.uiuc.edu/research/mandala/
• Overview: http://www.inhs.uiuc.edu/research/mandala/Overview.pdf
• Contact: Gail Kampmeier gkamp@uiuc.edu
• Version 7
• Cost: free
• Licence: http://www.inhs.uiuc.edu/~gkamp/downloads/MandalaLicense.pdf
• Restrictions: Non-commercial research and internal business use.

Comments

Mandala is a collections front-end to FileMaker Pro. It has been developed by and used strongly by the fly research community.