Collections Navigator

Collections Navigator is intended to provide access to the broad range of collections located at the Natural History Museum (London). The collections include specimens held in each of the five science departments, books, manuscripts, drawings and three-dimensional art in the Library and documents stored in the Archive. Links to additional resources such as databases, exhibitions and text documents are also included. For more information about the individual collections contact the relevant department.

This project is very much a 'work in progress'. At the time of the website launch collection records include data about the state of science department collections in 1992 and a significant number of records describing the manuscript collections held in the Entomology Library and the Ornithology Library. There is also a smattering of electronic resources. With time, more collections information will be added, furthering the depth of access to the Museum collections.

The way in which information about the collections has been recorded is somewhat experimental in approach. For the first time in the UK an archival description tool has been used to produce electronic records describing museum collections. The records are encoded in XML (eXtensible Markup Language) using the EAD (Encoded Archival Description) data structure standard. The encoded records are indexed and searched using Swish-e. The collection records are then rendered for web browser display using Java Server Pages(JSPs) in conjunction with an XSLT style sheet. For more information about the project contact R.Perkins@nhm.ac.uk. For technical information please contact E.Afiemo.