2025 SCC Work Program
Specify Collections Consortium Staff
This is the SCC Annual Work Program for software development and technical support activities for calendar year 2025. These are the priority areas and planned activities the SCC staff has decided on, heavily influenced by input from the Board of Members, Technology Advisory Committee, and the User Advisory Committee.
2025 Priority Area 1: Complete the Transition to Specify 7
Our highest priority and goal for 2025 is to finalize the Consortium’s migration to Specify 7 by implementing the remaining capabilities found only in Specify 6 that are necessary for sites to fully transition from Sp6 to Sp7. Completing Sp7 functionality is crucial for all Consortium institutions and allows the development team to fully focus on our primary platform.
Planned Activities:
- Data cleanup with Batch Edit
The ability to Batch Edit records in Specify 7 has been one of the top requests from users. Our implementation will include:- Bulk Updating Data: Easily update existing records with new information, streamlining workflows and removing the need to update records individually. This feature simplifies standardizing data and correcting inconsistencies.
- Quality Control: Use queries to identify issues in data, then efficiently resolve them in a batch transaction.
- Functions from Specify 6 Wizard
Replacing the functionality of the Specify 6 Wizard will make Specify 7 a fully self-sufficient platform. These capabilities will enable administrators to create new:- Specify databases ,
- Collections, disciplines, and divisions within a Specify 7 database, and
- Trees for Taxon, Geography, Storage Location, Chronostratigraphy, Lithostratigraphy, and Tectonics.
- Add support for images in the WorkBench
Allow users to select a range of images and see them while entering data from the WorkBench.
2025 Priority Area 2: Finalize and Support GeoSpecify-Driven Enhancements
GeoSpecify will include new capabilities specific to geoscience collection data but it will also enhance data handling for paleontological and biological collections (see below). Building on the Q1 2025 production release of GeoSpecify, we plan to allocate some development resources in 2025 to incrementally adjust GeoSpecify based on feedback from our Swiss member museums, the SCC Geo Advisory Committee, and member institutions. We will support SCC institutions who decide to bring their geocollections into Specify with webinars, individual support meetings, and documentation.
Planned Activities:
For all Collection Types:
- Collection Object Groups (COGs):
Our re-engineering of Specify 6 “Containers” enables users to logically group together Collection Object (CO) records if the cataloged entities were physically joined in the field, for example, multiple minerals in a rock or individually cataloged bones from a single dinosaur. COGs may also associate Collection Objects if they are physically joined in a collection as the result of a preservation or storage method, for example, multiple algal specimens on a single glass slide or two or more species on an herbarium sheet. - Collection Object Types (COTs)
COTs enable users to create more than one type of Collection Object, e.g. skeleton, tissue, DNA, mineral, meteorite, etc. within a single collection and associate each type with a unique numbering scheme and Taxon or name tree. - Multiple Taxon trees within a single collection
Users can create new Taxon trees based on our defaults (or from scratch) within a single collection. COs in the same collection can utilize different classification trees corresponding to their Collection Object Type. - Catalog Number flexibility
For each COT within a collection, users may define Catalog Number prefixes and suffixes along with an auto-incrementing number sequence and can optionally enable support for duplicate catalog numbers.
For Paleontology and Geology:
- New elements:
‘Relative Age’ and ‘Absolute Age’ tables; tree structure for Tectonic data; new and updated default form definitions, schema, pick lists, and taxonomy; extended Geo/Paleo Context data handling. - Expanded Paleo Context Table:
Support multiple ages for a single specimen, and add geology-specific fields, relationships, and comprehensive geologic context details.
2025 Priority Area 3: User Experience & Infrastructure
We hear and value SCC member feedback. Consortium members have identified many improvements that would greatly increase their effectiveness and the utility of Specify - a subset of the most requested is below. This priority area focuses on user requested enhancements that will improve common data workflows. We will make our best effort to address these and others in the 2025 timeline.
Planned Activities:
- Data Exporting
Improved support for mapping data fields to standard terms like Darwin Core. This will improve the findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability (FAIR) of Specify records and will simplify the process for collections staff to publish their data. - Concurrent Use of Specify 7
Improved performance with concurrent editing, particularly with WorkBench upload activities. - Restructure How Member Feedback is Received and Integrated
We will discuss different methods to receive and integrate feedback from our members considering the complexity of the request, the general applicability of the request, the benefit to the Specify community, and the membership level of the requester.
2025 Priority Area 4: Membership and Technical Support Services
In 2025, we will focus on strengthening technical support services and expanding membership engagement:
Planned and Continuing Activities:
- Respond to member requests promptly and resolve issues more quickly.
- Support new members, including individualized consulting, custom webinars, and onboarding, especially for migrating legacy data to Specify.
- Analyze ways to improve internal support processes, including prioritization and interaction (fulfillment).
- Host multiple SCC member activities at the Annual Meeting of The Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC) to be held at KU in May 2025 depending on member interest. Plans include showcasing Specify member stories, demonstrating new capabilities, collaboration with community institutions, and holding Specify training sessions.
- Present a webinar series, and SPNHC session, focused on Data Sharing, including Darwin Core importance and Specify exports, GBIF, iDigBio, and ALA data sharing options and value, and TDWG-described community standards.
- Schedule and advertise monthly Consortium webinars and expand the range of content.
- Expand new feature documentation in online written and video formats, and update existing documentation as needed.