Corresponding author: Mikko Heikkinen (
Academic editor:
Many natural history museums share a common problem: a multitude of legacy collection management systems (CMS) and the difficulty of finding a new system to replace them.
Kotka differs in many ways from traditional CMS's. It applies simple and pragmatic approaches. This has helped it to grow into a widely used system despite limited development resources – on average less than one full-time equivalent developer (FTE).
The aim of Kotka is to improve collection management efficiency by providing practical tools. It emphasizes the quantity of digitized specimens over completeness of the data. It also harmonizes collection management practices by bringing all types of collections under one system.
Kotka stores data mostly in a denormalized free text format using a triplestore and a simple hierarchical data model (Fig.
Kotka is a web application and data can be entered, edited, searched and exported through a browser-based user interface. However, most users prefer to enter new data in customizable MS-Excel templates, which support the hierarchical data model, and upload these to Kotka. Batch updates can also be done using Excel. Kotka stores all revisions of the data to avoid any data loss due to technical or human error.
Kotka also supports designing and printing specimen labels, annotations by external users, as well as handling accessions, loan transactions, and the
Kotka is continuously developed and adapted to new requirements in close collaboration with curators and technical collection staff, using agile software development methods. It is available as
Mikko Heikkinen
Biodiversity_Next 2019
Specimen data model used by Kotka. Every specimen can have any number of sub-specimens (e.g. insects in a jar), and each of them any number of identifications, type information and preparations (morphological preparations, DNA extracts, tissue samples or such).