Certain digital tools are needed repeatedly when working with collection data. In our Data Management Lab, we develop and test solutions that can be used across the board, regardless of specific infrastructural requirements.
We use these tools for our own work with the Berlin university collections, make them available to the collections for independent use, and publish them on GitHub.
Tools already developed
Lookup Tool for Anatomical Reference Data
As a spin-off from a project to digitize the index cards of the pathological specimen collection of the Berlin Museum of Medical History (Charité), we developed an online application that efficiently determines standard data references for anatomical terms. An autosuggest input field quickly and reliably finds the correct scientific term for anatomical entities of the human body. The data basis is a pre-aggregated dataset including Wikidata. Currently, the search works with both technical and general terms (in German and English). After selecting the appropriate term, the identifiers of the anatomical ontology UBERON, Terminologia Anatomica 2 from the International Anatomical Nomenclature Federation (IAF), and the Wikidata ID can be copied to the clipboard for further use.
The tool is available for free use on GitHub at https://github.com/bua-dns/anatomy-terms-lookup-tool. An online demonstrator can be used directly to look up anatomical terms.