Will the ZIMS application be
available offline?
ZIMS is web-based and you will need to be connected to the Internet to use it. However, ISIS is working on an appliance solution ("ZIMS Locally Hosted") that would allow institutions to have ZIMS application onsite. There will be a charge to lease the equipment.
What kinds of functions will the ZIMS application have that makes it better than ARKS?
ZIMS Release 1 will eventually replace all of what ARKS does right now plus add more functionality. Currently, ZIMS releases 1.0-1.6 are available, and ISIS will soon introduce ZIMS 2012. ISIS will continue to build new releases, which will contain additional functionality every quarter.
A few examples of some of the additional functionality that the ZIMS application will bring include:
- Easy accession of animals from other ISIS member institutions. Instead of re-entering data, you'll just click on a name.
- The ability to define life support systems, assign them to an enclosure, tank or series of them.
- Transponder inventory – implanted, assigned, or on the shelf.
- Enclosure maintenance, including the ability to track details.
- Options for tracking groups by count, life stages, sex; tracking merges and splits, moves between institutions, etc.
- Ability to track water quality measurements and feeding logs.
- Ability to manage staff through departments, teams and roles.
- A central place to maintain a list of contacts at your institutions.
- Ways to track permit applications; assign permits received to animals and enclosures.
- Ability to keep egg records and tracking. Record pre-birth events such as eggs laid and the presence of a fetus.
- Options for creating your own institutional preferences for language, time zone, use of multiple enclosures and items in activity reports.
- Ability to track animals released to the wild, track after release where possible.
How will we get training on the ZIMS application?
Tell me more about the "On-Site" training for the ZIMS application.
ISIS will offer onsite training as part of our Premium Services packages. An additional option for "in-person" training is the ISIS Users' Conference.
If you are interested in learning more, please contact training@isis.org.
What are the hardware requirements for the ZIMS application?
ZIMS is an online application. Any computer that can run Internet Explorer 8 or higher, and that has a high-speed connection to the internet (DSL/Cable (768 Kbps or faster), LAN) should work fine.
Recommended Configuration
Processor: Intel or AMD Dual Core Processor or faster
RAM: 2GB or more
Operating System: Windows 7 or later
Web Browser: Internet Explorer 8 or later
Internet Connection Bandwidth: T1 or better, LAN
Minimum Configuration
Processor: Intel or AMD Processor 2.2GHz
RAM: 1GB or more
Operating System: Windows XP SP3
Web Browser: Internet Explorer 7
Internet Connection Bandwidth: DSL/Cable (768 Kbps or faster), LAN
What changes can keepers expect when we start using the ZIMS application?
What should we be doing at this point to prepare our keepers for this transition?
Each institution will choose how different staff interact with ZIMS, but a typical keeper might find herself recording animal observations, weights, enclosure observations, etc. into ZIMS. Overall, the expectation is that the traditionally "registrar-entered" data will be entered by a wider variety of folks - those closer to the action!
Will ZIMS have a limit in the number of animals?
No, no limits.
What are the note codes in the ZIMS application?
Where will my custom ARKS note codes go into ZIMS?
Notes in ZIMS are very different than notes in ARKS. Anything (animal, staff, enclosure, etc.) can have a note attached to it, and the note type (closest thing to "note code" that ZIMS has) varies based on what you are attaching the note to. For example, for animals, there are nearly a dozen note types (as of 2/2/2010). For each of those, there are sub-types, e.g. for the Animal Information note type, there are 11 sub-types.
What note codes will be migrated into ZIMS from my ARKS?
What are the note codes
in ZIMS?
If you have custom note codes, they will all be put under "Notes and Attachments" for the animal. If you would like to migrate them in a different way, please contact ISIS as we might be able to do a custom note migration for you as a premium service.
ZIMS – the lifetime single Animal Record dream comes true…
(with a few possible surprises)
ZIMS is different than the multiple isolated institutional records systems that came before. The fundamental difference is the lifetime single animal record in ZIMS, not multiple sets of separate institutional records, all more or less referring to the same animal.
This ZIMS lifetime animal record delivers much more consistent and efficient information … and much saving of data re-entry retyping… but a few consequences of the “dream come true” may surprise some users:
How many birth_dates does one animal actually have?
In ZIMS, just one. In the previously separated institutional records systems, each institution that held the animal recorded a birth_date – not always the same one. Usually later holders received less information, so the date often lost precision as the animal moved along (kind of like the children’s game where something is whispered around a circle and tends to change as it goes along).
Usually the information is best at the beginning (where they may even have witnessed the birth), so ZIMS uses the first holder’s birthdate. This is the approach used for the ISIS website specimen reports for the last 10 years.
How many different taxonomic classifications describe one animal?
In ZIMS, it is fundamentally just one. Because taxonomy is determined by parentage or provenance (origin information), ZIMS’ taxonomy is normally set by the first reporting holder of the animal (like ISIS website specimen reports have done for the last 10 years). Later holders can record a locally-preferred name for their institutional use, if they wish. Should a later holder perform a high-resolution molecular study that provides high confidence taxonomic data results (that they are willing to share), ZIMS makes provision for this special case where a later holder may have the best taxonomic information for the animal and it can then be corrected in the single record.
If you loan an animal to another institution, do they own it?
In ARKS, sometimes yes. In ZIMS, no. This is a BIG improvement. With local institutional animal records systems, all manner of confusion and conflicts arose over transaction terms, ownership, etc. ISIS legacy systems collected tens of thousands of transactions where the sender and receiver do NOT agree on whether or not ownership was transferred, and even more transactions where the terms are not agreed on (one says it’s a sale, the other a donation, etc).
These conflicts were pointed out, but many were never resolved. These confusions cause a huge amount of wasted staff time and effort, and make ownership a muddle for some animals. In ZIMS, like legal transactions in the rest of real life, the sender controls the terms (when you buy a car or a house or anything we can think of, the seller sets the terms … or there is no sale).
How many times does one animal die?
In ZIMS, just once. With ARKS, deaths of animals out on loan had to be recorded where they happened, and also recorded by the owner in order to take them off the owner’s owned-animal-inventory. With ZIMS, recording a death record of an animal in-on-loan automatically removes the animal from the owner’s owned-animal-inventory.