Science Center Equipment Database

Andrew_Berke_laser_lab_10The equipment database project, begun in 2015, is designed to provide the science community with a flexible information tool that will help us when we need to find out what equipment we have, where it is located, how much it cost, how it is used, and when we need to plan to replace it. CATS has built the database with a flexible web interface that we can access from our desktop computers as well as hand-held devices. Equipment managers can tailor the database to their use by adding search tags, notes, and appending photos and documents. The Science Center Directors rely on the database for information to inform our equipment budget requests. We would like the equipment capital plan to be based on information that is as full and up-to-date as we – the sciences community – can make it.

Tom Spooner, Heather McQueen, Suzanne Palmer, and others have been working hard to populate our database with accurate data. We’d like you to check the work done so far and help us to move closer to a full picture of our equipment assets. We are particularly interested in your help to gather information about our important pre-2003 instruments that are still very much in use.

Please review the Science Center Equipment Database. https://edb.smith.edu/edb/cgi-bin/login.pl

If you are unable to login, please contact Suzanne Palmer for a user id and password. (Only available for use on campus by Smith faculty members and staff based in the Science Center.)

For substantial equipment that you know well, please check by November 11th that:

  1. your equipment is included with (at least) a description and categorization that is reasonably accurate;
  2. we have a ball-park estimate of original cost and acquisition date for larger items; and
  3. there is some estimate of useful life and replacement cost included (especially when we expect to reach the end of useful life in the next five years).

Our preference is that you make the additions directly into the database. If you need assistance or want to consult someone about how best to describe your equipment, please contact Tom Spooner.