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 Group mission and charter
Australasian records officers first met as an informal group at Taronga Zoo in November 1990. Christine Hopkins, then Assistant Curator at Taronga Zoo, instigated this meeting to facilitate discussion amongst our region’s records officers, and to begin the development of regional standards for animal record keeping. From that meeting, several recommendations were made to the Species Management Coordinating Council (SMCC – which later evolved into the ASMP). One of these was that the group be formally recognised as a body charged with identifying and solving regional and institutional animal record keeping problems and improving data collection and storage within our region.
During the following year, the Australasian Group of Records Officers (AGRO) was formed, and eleven members met at Melbourne Zoo during October 1991 to continue the work which was proposed at the previous meeting. In 1994, AGRO became recognised as a specialist group of the ASMP, and Carol Bach became the Convenor of the group. Carol remained as Convenor of the group until 2000, when she retired from Taronga Zoo. During this period, AGRO members have developed an Animal Records Keeping Procedures Manual, participated in several training workshops, developed and instigated a number of regional record keeping standards, and have produced a regular newsletter. Kevin Johnson from the ARAZPA office has been the convenor of the group since March 2001. In 2000, the group become formally known as the Animal Records Keeping Specialist Group, although the acronym, for AGRO is still widely used to refer to the group.
The group now meets on an annual basis, with around 20-25 animal records keepers attending each meeting.
Although a fair proportion of the group’s activities focus on using ISIS software for animal record keeping, most of the regionally-developed standards apply to all forms of zoo and aquarium record keeping. Issues such as individual specimen identification methods, animal transaction protocols, taxonomic nomenclature and providing data for studbook keepers are very relevant to all records keepers, regardless of the way they store their records.
Accurate and complete animal records are vital to professional management of our collections. Species management depends upon accurate studbook data, which of course comes directly from each institution’s animal records. Institutional collection planning also depends upon us knowing which taxa and specimens our institutions have in their collections.
Membership Eligibility : Membership to the Animal Records Specialist Advisory Group is limited to the primary person in each ARAZPA institution who is responsible for animal record keeping
International Species Information System (ISIS)
ISIS, a global zoo animal information system based in Minnesota, USA: It is a membership organisation that provides the following zoo software.
- ARKS - supports records-keeping and collection management software
- MedARKS supports veterinary medical records-keeping and collection management.
- REGASP - collection planning software distributed to ISIS members under license from ARAZPA.
- SPARKS - population management software which supports studbook management and species analysis.
North American Zoological Registrars Association
Currently, there are only two formally established regional groups of animal records keepers. The other group is the North American Zoological Registrars Association (ZRA). The ZRA was formed in 1984.
Education Specialist Advisory Group
Horticulture Specialist Advisory Group
Human Resources Specialist Advisory Group
Marketing Specialist Advisory Group
Research Specialist Advisory Group
South-East Asian Conservation Specialist Advisory Group
Taxonomy Specialist Advisory Group
Veterinary Specialist Advisory Group |