What is an “Internationally recognized Collections Code”?

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From Specify Setup Wizard

Enter the Name and internationally recognized Collection Code to create a single Collection within the Discipline. This is the name that will appear within Specify on the Collection form and can be queried and used in reports.

What is an “Internationally recognized Collections Code”?

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Hi @VHough,

“Internationally recognized collection code” refers to the code assigned to your collection that, in the best of cases, would be globally unique. Some disciplines have very standard collection code practices (see the Index Herbarium), while others lack the same standardization. If at all possible, it is best to have these codes be completely unique so they can function as identifiers for collections around the world.

The practical reality for many collections is that there is not a standard for their discipline or the same code has been used and registered in different places. For example, if you look at the GRSciColl portal and find all collections with the code “ENT”, you will see 16: https://scientific-collections.gbif.org/collection/search?code=ENT

For all pratical purposes, this field is meant to capture the same data as the collectionCode field in the Darwin Core standard:

I hope this clarifies things a bit! Please let us know if you have any further questions.

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Just a clarification. The collection code by itself is not designed to be unique. The hope was that the Darwin Core Triplet of Institution code, collection code and catalog number would be unique. This was before unique identifiers and was thought to be a way to uniquely identify individual objects in collections. Unfortunately, as we now know, this did not work out so well, hence our adoption of unique identifiers of various kinds. Hopefully at some stage we will end up with a single system of identification.

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Here is a good primer - The Trouble with Triplets in Biodiversity Informatics: A Data-Driven Case against Current Identifier Practices

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