Finally! Direct Data Upload is Available
Your WebERA sites have been re-directed to an updated version of MyClimateData. Just go to www.myclimatedata.com and log in as usual. All the functionality remains but the look has been updated, many of the tasks have been streamlined, and the instructional text has been improved. Most importantly, the updated site allows direct upload and import of the data, which you have been collecting since March.
A new Data Manager link exists on the top navigation bar. This new feature centralizes upload, import, export, removal, and viewing of data. The Data Manager section contains four options – Location List, Upload Files, Import Files, and Upload Weather Data. To access and use the upload and import files functions, the correct permission has to be assigned. I have assigned these to your account, but you may want to assign them to other users in your institution (refer to Creating or Editing User Accounts in MyClimateData).
The Upload Files and Import Files options allow you to upload the data that you have been collecting. To upload and import data:
- From the Upload Files section, upload your files. You are now ready to import them.
- From the Import Files section, assign the data file to the correct location, save it, and import it. The file name is saved in the Import File Name field on the Information page and is automatically associated with this location during subsequent uploads until you change it. (The Import File Name information field is now a required field and it has been added to your Information page.)
For complete instructions on how to upload your data, refer to Uploading Data in MyClimateData.
The Location List contains a list of all the locations within the system and all the data that has been imported. Here you can export, remove, or view data from each location. This section also allows you to change the association between the logger ID, import file name, and location.
The Upload Weather Data option allows you to upload weather data from a NOAA weather station in your area.
For more information about the options within the Location List as well as uploading weather data, refer to Using the Data Manager Section in MyClimateData.
For this post, upload and import the data that you have been collecting from all the PEM2 loggers. If you have data from any original PEMs or Climate Notebook files, they can be uploaded and imported as well. Once you have data in the system, please focus on the three feature topics discussed below during the next month.
Feature Topic #1: Search Functions
MyClimateData contains several search functions. These functions are Search For, Search By, Jump To, Location Tree, and Pick List. The functions are located in the left pane of the site. The search functions are available whenever the Location Tree is displayed. In addition, the results for all the search functions display in the right pane.
The Search For function allows you to search the entire database for a word or number included in the information entered for each location.
The Search By function allows you to narrow a search based on various information fields.
Example: You may start your search with the Collection Type field. The next drop down will ask which Collection Type you want to find. You can then choose from all the terms you have entered. You can submit the search at this point or continue to narrow down the selection.
The Jump To function allows you to go directly to a single location.
Clicking on any level of the Location Tree displays a comparative view of all locations within that level (Compare tab). At the Building level you will see all locations within the building, at the Floor level, every location on that floor, etc. You can also compare locations using the Pick List function. You can select any number of locations based on your own criteria. In addition, you can save these lists for later retrieval by assigning the list a name in the Save a List field. This saved list displays in the View a List drop down, where you can select it anytime. To clear a list or to delete a saved list, use the options located at the bottom of the page.
For all searches, you can set the time frame for the data you want to view by selecting a time from the time frame drop down and clicking Set Year. Twelve months is the shortest time frame. All the data that is available from the last twelve months displays, which may not be a complete year.
Please try each of these search functions and let us know your thoughts – do they meet your needs, are they useful, would you like to see another type of search function, etc.
Feature Topic #2: Comparison of Locations
The search functions listed in Topic #1 allow you to compare locations within the selection. The search function results display on the Risk Summary page, which gives you an overview of the environmental risk ratings for each location in the selected time period. Besides the Risk Summary option, five other options are available, which allow you to view other information associated with this group of locations. These options are Metrics, Maps, Photos, Notes, and Compare. For this topic, we will focus on the Compare option.
When the Compare option is selected, the Compare page displays. The page contains a table that allows you to evaluate several elements of the environment in the locations. The list is automatically ordered by degree of risk with the best spaces at the top. You can change the order by clicking on any column heading.
Risk is represented by the Environmental Risk Ratings (Chem, Mech, Mold, and Corr). In addition, the number/values within the table display using the color red.
To view a graph associated with a data, click on any number/value within the table. You can also view a bar graph comparison for a specific item (such as Mold, % DC, etc.), by clicking Bar Chart within the heading of that item. The bar chart displays only the data for the selected heading/item. (To go back to the table view, click on any of the headings within the table (such as Mold)).
To view more information about a space, click on a location name.
To see the comparative placement among all your spaces, mouse over a number/value within the table. The values display above the table headings.
Please use the compare features and let us know how they work for you.
Feature Topic #3: Value of Environmental Risk Ratings
The Environmental Risk Ratings are based on preservation metrics calculated from temperature and relative humidity data. To view how the ratings are assigned, from the top navigation bar, select Storage Planning and then select Environmental Risk Ratings (from the secondary navigation bar).
The environment in each location is automatically rated for its tendency to increase the rate of natural aging (chemical change), mechanical damage, mold growth, and metal corrosion.
When you compare multiple locations, the Risk Summary page displays the rating for each location. However, when you look at a single location, the Risk Summary page focuses on that single location and the information is split into multiple sections. The Environmental Risk/Type of Decay section displays the ratings for the location. The next section, Material/Location Matchup, indicates whether the environment is a good match or a potential risk for the materials housed there. These Xs and check marks are based on a comparison between the environment and the environmental requirements set for each material (which can be accomplished by going to Utilities | Materials | Edit).
We are very interested in what you think about the Environmental Risk Ratings. How do you use them? How valuable do you think they are? Do you understand the use of preservation metrics and their application to environmental monitoring?
Please respond with your comments by October 27, 2008.
October 1, 2008 at 10:30 am |
Carl Stewart from CU Boulder sent me some excellent comments about the data upload – since he included images he didn’t post here, but I will try to give you the highlights.
Page 2 of the upload instructions shows a warning you might get when you begin to upload. That warning will vary depending on the browser you use and may not look like the image shown in the instructions – in any case it is OK to run it.
Carl used a list of location names associated with PEM serial numbers to help him remember which logger to assign to each location and would have liked that to be more automatic. We will review this idea internally – right now just know that once you have made the association the first time you don’t have to do it again unless the logger moves.
Carl found the wording in the confirmation window awkward – I have to admit that I did too. This window also serves as a warning if you try to upload the same data set to a different location, or two different sets of data to the same location. Once we have heard from all of you we will reconsider the wording here.
There was confusion about viewing the data from the Location List page after upload. The magnifying glass symbol next to the location name opens up the view to see the dates for the data (some users have several years), allow export, etc. To see graphs of the data you uploaded – click the initial magnifying glass to open the view, then click the magnifying glass to the right of the start and end dates.
October 9, 2008 at 4:13 pm |
It all went smoothly. 2 locations didn’t upload to my USB drive the first time, but then they did. I added a Note for “Monitor Location details” Even with the photo and floor plan, I had a hard time finding a couple of monitors I “hid” in the collection.
Oh, on the Metrics Reports, I think having “building, floor, Room” information included on the report would be useful. It is cryptically in the Location Name, but it would be prettier to have that information on the report.
October 17, 2008 at 10:59 am |
We’ve had a few problems here at UIUC. When i try to import files after they’ve been successfully uploaded and saved, i get the following message:
Parser error ‘80040000′
unexpected eof
/stream.asp, line 63
what’s up?
October 17, 2008 at 4:29 pm |
To Jennifer and others with this problem – if the USB key has a command file you have to remove the command file before you upload the data. If that isn’t the problem, try another USB key. The files you uploaded show that they have no data in them, so the problem seems to be with the transfer of data from the monitor.
October 17, 2008 at 4:40 pm |
I have been looking at everyone’s WebERA site and I’ve noticed that several users have entered materials in the Collection Types default list, and collection types in the Materials default list. When I see that I have been switching them – collection type is the broad term, generally used to organize collections (Paintings, Archives, Rare Books), and mostly used as a search term. Materials are more specific – wood, canvas, paper, leather. The material entries are linked to the environmental risk ratings – the environmental quality each material requires. For example, leather requires a ‘good’ chemical decay rating, OK for mechanical, ‘good’ for mold risk, and OK for corrosion. These ratings are automatically compared to the ability of the environment in the location to provide this environment for the collections stored in it. It is more difficult to apply these ratings to collection types, since many materials with different requirements are included in most collection types.
October 19, 2008 at 4:36 pm |
Hi all-
So I uploaded a bunch of data to my site and played around with it (mostly data from previous Climate Notebook files). I think it is going to be great overall to have access to all data in one location via the Web. I know my remote preservation people will really appreciate that. But I do think that the Environmental Quality Ratings for Locations under Storage Planning needs to have some kinks knocked out in order for it to be a useful, reliable tool. I do love the simplicity of the concept, so hopefully these issues can be addressed.
So, here are some of my discoveries:
– Under “Storage Planning” in the individual risk summary for the material types says that the “material/ location match up”, it lists paper as a “good match” for a location that has a high risk for decay for all categories. The space that I chose is a place where there is high risk for mold so it should say that it is a bad choice for paper. Then again, I have yet to have found a location that was “at risk” for any location that I have data for…
- Again under “Storage Planning” some of the locations that matched the environmental quality criteria did not have summary data available when I clicked on the location. I got this message: “Summary Data Not Available For this Location/ Year”. But there had to be data in order for the program to assess that location for that year, right? And I know that I have data for the year in question.
- One thing I noted that might be confusing to people (and I apologize in advance if my explanation of this is murky) is the evaluation of match up for location: if you choose, say 2008, for the year to search for, and you only have partial data for *that particular year*, you could get seemingly skewed data.
My example: one of my spaces was deemed “good” for all environmental risk categories for 2008; this is a space that I know has high risk for mold. That was because, for 2008, I only had data from January to April: those months did not exhibit any mold problems, but May through October do, which I did not have 2008 data for those months.
Not really an error: just something for people to be aware of: check the dates of the space evaluation to make sure it is not just for a portion of the year…
Wish List:
Could we add materials if we wished, like we were able to edit alerts in Climate Notebook? For example, I have a collection that is made up of plastics other than nitrate and acetate. Also I have a collection that has color swatches and samples – dyes that may be temperature and RH sensitive… just curious…
Hope everyone is doing well.
Best,
Tara
October 19, 2008 at 5:24 pm |
Hi all again-
Other comments I forgot to say:
SO much easier to add a location! And change names! And locations! Hoorah!!
Search functions for the Location Trees work just fine so far… like the keyword search function for a location…
Like that when you click on a location, a new tab pops up in Mozilla so you can switch back and forth… and the CLICK HERE TO RETURN function is nice also.
Could we have a drop-down menu for when we want to add a universal term in a specific category? Like when I want to add “Paper” as a universal “Material” for all of my locations, I would have to make sure I use the correct term in order for it to show up. Not that I would NOT remember “paper” as a material, but maybe some of the other material in that category would not come as readily to me.
That all for now folks,
Tara
October 20, 2008 at 2:20 pm |
Tara – Thank you for your comments. MY RESPONSE APPLIES TO EVERYONE! In order for any of the risk summaries to function correctly you have to have entered environmental risk ratings for each material in each mode of decay. Last week I was able to do this for many of you – but some of the sites would not let me save them – these include Univ. Colorado, Seattle MOHAI, Shelburne, Smithsonian, Univ. Illinois, Univ. Wisconsin and YALE Univ Libraries. Tara that’s why the material/location match up wasn’t correct for you. To enter them yourself go to Utilities, select the Materials button. Each material on the list has an edit button – click it. On the page that comes up you can choose what the storage environment needs are for that material under each mode of decay – OK, Good, or N/A (not applicable). Click save.
More in the next post.
Patti
October 20, 2008 at 2:25 pm |
Tara – and Others – You can have your wish.
You said in your post that you would like to add materials – you can and should! Again, go to Utilities, select the Materials button. You will see a button for Add Material – type in whatever you like and it will become part of the drop down selection. Material entries require a default set of terms for the risk ratings to work properly and for searches to be consistent. After you add the new term you can edit it – select the storage environment needs, and add a comment if you like.
Another wish come true -you asked to be able to add a universal term in a specific category. You can – go to Utilities, select the Assign Globally button. Select the field you want to enter the term into for every location, then type in the term. Hit save.
Patti
October 23, 2008 at 2:40 pm |
General:
Takes a long time to download data on traveldrive. Is there a way to limit the download to new data only?
Could you suggest how best to update “Notes” for ongoing problems? By entering a separate note or adding information to the first one?
All graphics/functions do not fit on a small computer screen.
Search Function:
No problems noted
Added outdoor data and data from Climate Notebook for one location.
Comparison of Locations: Environmental Risk:
Images do not appear with location. Did I misstep?
.pdf download button doesn’t always work
One location with known mold problems shows up ‘ok’ for mold. Could it be that the conditions in outside wall are problem and ambient conditions are ok?
Could use risk summary from locations showing high risk of corrosion to silver/metal objects when planning new exhibits (supports purchase of scavengers)
Attempted to identify rooms with better conditions for some collections at risk, but quickly saw not every object would fit inside the conservation studio (best environment)! Starting to think how we could instead use the data to change HVAC settings for some rooms to more closely reflect the good conditions found in the studio.
Bar charts were confusing at first, but makes more sense when at least 5 locations are selected for comparison.
October 24, 2008 at 11:19 am |
Suggestions from Carl Stewart in Boulder about the NOTEMANAGER VIEW:
Note Manager doesn’t list the locations, but only where the notes were attached. So in some cases I attached the note to the Bldg sometimes to the Room and sometimes to the Location ….it seems like they should display more logically so I could tell what note pertains to what location either as a building or room. Ideally it would seem the Note Manager view should parallel the tree hierarchy format…so if there was a room note, it would appear over the different locations in that room. If there was a building note, over all the rooms and locations in that building. Indentations would help. For awhile we put the Department name with the Building and room number….but that was cumbersome…and made it seem like something was on a different floor if it was on the same floor….
October 25, 2008 at 3:44 pm |
Hi all-
Thank you for fixing the Storage Planning comparison tool! Yes now it works and makes sense. And I will definitely be adding materials. Yes, I agree with Dawn. Comparing the locations altogether with the data averages is helpful to see if adjusting temperature levels could help with problematic locations. And we are the opposite: the Conservation Lab is one of the worst environments we have!
Patti, one function that I would like to see in ClimateData is the ability to compare locations TEMP, RH, etc. graphically, like Climate Notebook could do when you would compare notebooks.
The reason I ask for this specifically is that I need to track “dips and blips” for our HVAC system in the stacks and I cannot compare locations of the different dataloggers in the stacks to see how the six AHUs are functioning together.
Is this available and I just don’t know where to look for it?
Thanks!
Tara
October 27, 2008 at 8:03 am |
I appreciate the way different materials are alphabetized automatically.
Is there a way to see the T/RH recommendations for materials from the “explore materials” screen?
October 27, 2008 at 12:54 pm |
I really do appreciate having web access to Climate Data because I was able to work on this from home and I can see that it will give me more flexibility with my two additional off-site storage sites. Another reason this was beneficial is that our home computers are better than my work computer. Here at work I have Internet Explorer and it didn’t display the window or the “Add” button when attempting to upload the data. It worked better with firefox on my HP laptop at home but I couldn’t get the plug-ins to load. Finally I was able to add the files using a Macbook Pro and Firefox but I’m having trouble with the second step, linking them to the locations. The instructions are not making sense to me so I may have to bring in that laptop and call you for phone support. I wonder if you want to suggest the best browser to use and any minimum requirements in terms of operating systems. Unfortunately we don’t have full time tech support at my museum in spite of the abundance of computer nerds in Seattle. I really like the improvements to the basic location set up. Again IE would not give me a PDF of the location information which I would like to print out for reference.
October 30, 2008 at 1:53 pm |
I think at this point it is very difficult to evaluate the environmental risk ratings and how I use them. MyClimateData is asking me to change the way I look at climate control in my collection spaces to a more specimen centric point of view. While I agree with this philosophy Im still learning the language and Im not sure my facilities managers will ever understand or care about the metrics. To them it may always be about raising/lowering temp and rh%. Maybe thats ok.
Having said that there are some things that could make that easier for me.
-would it be possible when evaluating locations and comparing locations to be able to narrow the search by some location information criteria. This may not be so important for a small institution but where as i deal with many buildings and departments it could make a difference.
-Is there a way too view data in a shorter time span than a 12 month period. CN had the ability to view data in any time period.
-Information edit-materials. Can i add more than one type of material to a space? If i pick another type it over writes the last material type picked. Also i cannot add a material or collection type. I get an error message.
November 4, 2008 at 4:19 pm |
Neil – Thank you for your comments and I apologize for the delay in answering them.
We will probably have further discussion about the metrics since they really are an important and unique part of this system.
You can narrow your search criteria – use the Search By function on the home page (upper left). Select a field from the drop down – for example if you choose the field Building Name, you will be asked “Which Bldg Name?” and you choose from that drop down. Then click the “Narrow Search” button and choose another field, “Material” for example – then select from the drop down list of materials. You can keep narrowing the search this way – to select locations associated with one department in one building or whatever it is you are looking for.
In MyClimateData you can’t narrow the time span the way you can in Climate Notebook – and we hope to be able to remedy that for the final product because this is important to a lot of users. In the meantime you can do it in the PEMdata.com site – you have to bring your data into that site (also via the web) and in this case you can set the time period for the graphs.
You can and should add and edit Materials – you can create the list and the environmental needs through the Utilities page. From the edit page you should be able to enter as many Materials as you like. It is hard to describe here but I will send you an email.
Patti
November 6, 2008 at 11:11 am |
Just a few comments/questions:
Uploading and importing has been a breeze. However, I’ve noticed each month when I go to collect my data on my USB that everything will go well and look right when I collect the data, but when I look at the data I’ve gathered on the USB at my computer there’s usually one location that never actually transferred any data. There’s a file on the USB with the right name but there’s no information in it (the file size is zero). I can go back with my USB and collect the data again and it works fine but I have no way of knowing the first time that it didn’t actually work. It’s never the same PEM2 twice, but every month on e of our 20 doesn’t quite make it. Just an oddity I was wondering if anyone else had encountered.
The search and compare has been very helpful. We would also love to be able to look at more than one kind of data on a single graph (for example: RH and Temp for a single location together, or temps for multiple locations together). It would also be helpful to zero in on narrower time frames than just 12 months.
Still wrapping our head around some of the risk settings. We had a little trouble deciding how to set the storage environment needs for specific materials that we added. We were wondering how you set the material parameters for some of the materials that came preset in the program. For example: Leather was preset to require OK conditions for corrosion… and we know that humidity can cause problems for an organic material like leather…. but couldn’t figure out how metal corrosion specifically applied to leather. Perhaps the “Corrosion” risk is actually referring to a broader risk but it’s confusing when it’s labeled as specifically in terms of metals.
November 7, 2008 at 10:38 am |
Rachel,
I have seen the empty file problem but have no idea what is causing it. Just make sure the hourglass stops before removing the flash drive. Is it the same drive every time? It could be a faulty memory sector on the drive?
Ed
November 18, 2008 at 3:31 pm |
Carl’s idea – to associate the data logger to room – GREAT idea!! Makes downloading so much easier. Creating and adding materials to site, also so much easier…
As for the environmental risk not so useful for us – it’s interesting but a tool I would rarely use.
Generally, we are interested in viewing temperature and humidity for a specific period of time..month, week, quarterly, etc… I would love to be able to manipulate the time frame for graphs.