Viewing and Sharing Data

There are two parts to record keeping for the Barton Arboretum at Medford Leas.

Record Keeping

The first part is of course, the record keeping.

Originally the arboretum records were kept using formal database software (Microsoft Access) but we now use a standard spreadsheet (Google Sheets - although it could be any spreadsheet), the concept of a database table still apply. A database table is composed of records and fields that hold data.

Data is stored in records. A record is composed of fields and contains all the data about one particular item in a database. In this database, a record contains the data for one particular tree. Records appear as rows in the database table.

A field is part of a record and contains a single piece of data for the subject of the record. Fields appear as columns in a database table. Data in a field for the trees database will include things like Common Name, Latin Name and most importantly location data.

Ideally every tree (or other items in different databases) should have its own record with its own unique ID number.

Viewing and Sharing Data

The second part of the record keeping function is making the data available to users.

Many large arboreta have custom web pages or mobile apps to enable users to access data about the trees and plants in their arboreta. Some examples are:

• Arnold Arboretum at Harvard University
• The Morton Arboretum near Chicago

Medford Leas does not anything like this yet, although it is something to consider in the future. For now we are using Google products, Google Earth, Google My Maps and Google Maps to view maps and information about trees and other items, and Google Sheets to enable users to search and filter the database.