FAQ
Yes. Select the appropriate collection from the dropdown list on the left side of the search box before you do your search. By default this dropdown list is set to 'ALL'.
Sets are a 'virtual' collection of specimens or cultures. Every registered user is able to create sets, then add or remove specimens from a set. There is currently no limit on the number of sets you create or the number of specimens within a set. To create, edit, view or delete your sets go to 'My SCD'.
A specimen may only be in each set once, but may be added to many different sets.
The main purpose of creating sets is to provide 'shopping-cart' type functionality – allowing you to gather up specimens or cultures of interest so that you can easily return to same group of specimens. Once specimens are in a set the data can easily be downloaded, or the specimens requested for loan, or cultures requested for purchase.
The search syntax in SCD allows you to combine both a 'field search' and a range search to limit your query to the accession number field (i.e. accessionNumber) and specify the range required. For example, to find all the Allan Herbarium specimens between accession numbers CHR 514330 and CHR 514360 the query term would be:
accessionNumber:["CHR 514330" TO "CHR 514360"]
Note that this is actually shorthand for a query using two fields to ensure that the correct number range is returned, so the query will be converted to:
accessionNumberSort:[514330 TO 514360] AND accessionNumber:CHR*
You can also achieve the same result by selecting 'CHR' from the collections dropdown list and using the query term:
accessionNumber:[514330 to 514360]
Nearly all of the records from our collections are fully accessible. Only a very small number of records are restricted or have restricted components to their data. This may be the case, for example, with threatened species. The SCD website applies restrictions in two ways:
- For sensitive records, the whole record may only be accessible to registered users with the appropriate level of permission
- For records where only part of the information is sensitive, the record may be viewed, but some parts of the data that are sensitive will only be accessible to registered users with the appropriate level of permission.
To access restricted data you can either
Sign up or
Log in then send a
Request Restricted Access to the appropriate collection, or if you only require information from a few records, contact the appropriate collection using the
feedback and enquiries form.
This is because each facet shows ALL the available values that are recorded for the specimens or cultures listed in the result set. When you filter the search results based on a facet, the system reduces the result set to specimens with data containing the specified values. However, those specimens may also have other values for the same field. This means that when the facets are recalculated for the reduced set they will display the value(s) you have selected as well as any other values on specimens matching your criteria.
For example, you may filter the result to show CHR specimens collected between 1970 and 1980; however the collection year facet may show dates earlier and later than this. This is caused by specimens that have more than one collection event – for example cultivated plants that were collected from pre-1970 then grown on in cultivation with a subsequent sample collected off the cultivated plant between 1970 and 1980. Similarly, plants collected in the wild between 1970 and 1980, but grown in cultivation and subsequently collected from that material, may result in dates greater than 1980.
Yes, registered users are able to download data. Data can be downloaded for individual records from the details page, as well as single or groups of records from the search result list or personal sets. Downloaded data are provided as TSV (tab-separated value) file or in the Specimens Examined format.
This format enables users to download data to meet specific formats for the citation of specimens. We have two Specimens Examined formats: Mycologia and Mycological Progress. Below are the fields and field order of the formats. The records are grouped by determined name or preferred name. For each record, fields that are empty are omitted.
Mycologia:
Mycological Progress:
