OSCA Cache Data flow The record MIDS Institutions

Data aggregation for the OSCA consortium

One repository for Austria's natural science collections.

OSCA Cache takes Darwin Core records from 14 Austrian collection institutions, holds them in one place, and passes them on to the OSCA Portal and to DiSSCo. One record, prepared once, findable everywhere.

Open the Portal→ Read the workflow paper→ In development
Collection institutions 14 members · Darwin Core (DwC) Centralised repository OSCA Cache → validate · normalise terms → reconcile names to CoL → mint & resolve PIDs → score MIDS level → hold for regular release records held 0 preserved specimens only OSCA Portal all records · public search DiSSCo European infrastructure GBIF · Biodiversitätsatlas via LINZ aggregator
Data flows established through OSCA Institutions' pre-existing routes Filter before DiSSCo

What the Cache does

Between the drawer and the world there is exactly one step.

Every institution digitises at its own pace and in its own house style. The Cache is where fourteen ways of working become one shared, citable body of data.

01 / Ingest

Records arrive as Darwin Core

Institutions supply collection data in DwC — from herbarium sheets, spirit collections, drill cores and insect boxes. The Cache accepts it, checks it, and reports back what is missing.

Darwin CoreABCD / EFGFAIR
02 / Reconcile

Names, places and identifiers line up

Taxon names are matched against the Catalogue of Life, institutions through ROR, people through ORCID. Every object gets a persistent identifier you can cite.

Catalogue of LifeHandle / DOIRORORCID
03 / Distribute

Regular release to the Portal and DiSSCo

The Cache releases its holdings on a fixed schedule: in full to the OSCA Portal, and — limited to preserved specimens — to DiSSCo.

openDSDigital SpecimenMIDS

One record, three states

From a handwritten label to a citable object.

A worked example: a snail from the Hochschwab. Cylindrus obtusus is endemic to Austria, which places it in both OSCA pilot projects — Mollusken and Endemiten.

Naturhistorisches Museum Wien —

Cylindrus obtusus (Draparnaud, 1805)

Cylindrical rock snail · endemic to the Northern Limestone Alps

    MIDS — Minimum Information about a Digital Specimen

    Digitisation is not a switch. It is a ladder.

    The Cache scores every incoming record on the MIDS scale. Each institution can see exactly where its holdings stand, and what the next worthwhile step would be.

    Level 0 — Recorded

    The object exists in the catalogue

    An entry with an identifier, a holding institution and an object type. Enough to know the object is there.

    27% of Austrian holdings
    Level 1 — Located

    Where, when and by whom

    Locality, collecting date and collector are added. From here the specimen becomes usable for ecological and historical questions.

    growing with each pilot project
    Level 2 — Evidenced

    With an image, a sequence or a measurement

    The record carries its own evidence: a photograph of the label, a DNA barcode on BOLD, a geochemical measurement.

    1% of digitised objects have images

    OSCA in Zahlen

    The size of the task.

    0
    Objects in Austria's natural science collections
    0
    of them digitally documented
    0
    of digitised objects include an image
    0
    Institutions in the consortium

    Object count: OSCA consortium survey. Digitisation figures: expert estimate, osca.science.

    Where the data goes

    Prepared once, findable in many places.

    01

    OSCA Portal

    Public search across the whole Austrian holding, with sources you can switch on: GBIF, GeoCASe, Europeana and DiSSCo.

    02

    DiSSCo

    Austria's contribution to the European research infrastructure for collections, as openDS Digital Specimens.

    preserved specimens only
    03

    GBIF & Biodiversitätsatlas Österreich

    The long-standing route through the Linz aggregator stays in place and continues to run in parallel.

    04

    BOLD · GeoCASe · KulturPool

    Domain-specific destinations: DNA barcodes to BOLD through ABOL, geoscientific material to GeoCASe, cultural holdings to KulturPool.

    The consortium

    Fourteen institutions supply the Cache.

    Take part

    Do you look after a collection in Austria?

    The Cache is in development. If your institution would like to contribute collection data, or wants to know what a first export might look like, get in touch.

    osca@nhm.at→ Consortium website→