The NCMNS API Platform was a multi-functional data publishing platform. The overarching goal of the platform was to provide a blueprint for the construction of RESTful APIs to support scientific research, primarily in the fields of biodiversity informatics, biodiversity, geology, and paleontology.
The NCMNS Metrics Dashboard is a data visualization platform built to support institutional priorities and communicate performance to staff, key stakeholders, and policy-makers. The primary charting libraries are AmCharts (https://www.amcharts.com/) and d3.js (https://d3js.org/) with data sources provided through a custom RESTful API. The platform itself is built using the MVC Framework, Laravel.
A podcast hosted by Dr. Eric Dorfman, former Director and CEO of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and Dr. Dan Dombrowski, the Museum’s Chief Veterinarian. Along with their featured guests, the hosts identify and explore our innate connections to nature through science, art, and living to promote the importance of preserving and protecting our wildlife and wild places to maintain these connections for better health and happiness. The Biophilia Podcast is a production of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.
In 2022, the Biophilia Podcast became the Love Nature Podcast with new branding and design. The Love Nature website now occupies the virtual space formerly held by its predecessor.
The Candid Critters Project Management system (CAPS) is a custom web application to support the NC Candid Critters project workflow. CAPS is built using the Laravel MVC Framework with a MYSQL database backend. The web application features a wide array of features that include camera management, reservation and training tracking, site mapping, and custom reports generated on the fly.
The architecture of the application is divided into modules that provide support for specific sections of the workflow. This way the application can target and scale to particular needs. These modules with a short description are as follows:
NC Environmental Restoration Association is a 501c industry group that represents environmental restoration professionals in North Carolina. The website is a ‘single page application'(SPA) where all of the content loads dynamically within a single page request.
The Online Collections web application, project name Aves, is a search and data-sharing platform for biological, geological, and paleontological collections. The application was built using the Laravel and Vue.js frameworks. Bootstrap takes care of the responsive behavior, vivus.js for SVG animations, and jQuery Datatables for the display and interactivity of search results. Several collections included a web map for georeferenced specimens using Leaflet and custom GeoJSON API endpoints. The system even includes a simple collections management tool with features that include storage and photo management.
The Online Collections portal belonged to the internal collections interconnected network, a set of web applications that communicated with one another through custom APIs. Here, media in the form of 3-D models, images, and scans of primary sources (e.g., ledgers, labels, and collection cards) associated with specimens were provided by the Collections Asset Manager (CAMS). Spatial datasets, controlled vocabularies, collections metrics are provided dynamically by a Data Publishing Platform.
The Collections Asset Management System (CAMS) is a digital asset management system that is specifically designed to support natural history collections. Asset capture, automatic metadata extraction, image viewing and modification, custom categorization, and support for a wide variety of file types are among the platform’s features. A sophisticated web interface and API were used to share, search, and download assets.
Ecosystem Planning & Restoration is an environmental firm that provides services to support a sustainable environment with a standard, small company, information-driven website.
