The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History recently registered nearly 350,000 samples with IGSNs in SESAR², including specimens from the National Gem, National Mineral, and National Rock Collections. The inclusion of these samples in SESAR² greatly enhances the discoverability of these valuable collections*. Furthermore, since data exists for many of these samples in PetDB, the IGSNs can now be added and used to link samples to analyses in different publications regardless of sample naming conventions of individual authors. Click here to view an example sample profile in SESAR², including a link to the Smithsonian Collections web pages. To view all samples, search the catalog for samples beginning with the user code (namespace) ‘NHB’.

These registrations took advantage of the SESAR² Web Services, which are documented here.

*Please note that the use of IGSNs in publications, alone, does not fulfill the Smithsonian loan policy stating that samples must be referenced by museum catalog numbers. Authors should include both museum catalog numbers and IGSNs.

Smithsonian Registers National Gem, Mineral, and Rock Collections with IGSNs in SESAR²

The number of new samples registered in SESAR² over the last four months was more than triple that registered over the same period of time last year. In addition to an increase in registrations and batches submitted, there has also been an increase in the number of different namespaces (owned by individuals or institutions) being used to register samples.

From Oct. 2013 to Feb. 2014, 8,817 samples from 21 namespaces (user codes) were registered. Over that period of time, 33 batch registration templates were uploaded.

From Oct. 2014 to Feb. 2015, 29,084 samples (+230%) from 36 namespaces (user codes) (+70%) were registered. Over that period of time, 96 batch registration templates (+190%) were uploaded.

The increases seen in SESAR² registrations show that more researchers and organizations are finding SESAR² and the IGSN to be useful tools for managing their physical samples and the metadata pertaining to them, as well as for making their physical samples discoverable in the global SESAR² sample catalog. To learn more about the benefits of SESAR² and the IGSN and how to start registering your physical samples, please visit our Resources or Registration pages, or see our  tutorials.

SESAR² Registrations Triple in a Year

IGSNs are going to change syntax from a 3 digit namespace to a 5 digit namespace (user code), starting with IE (For IEDA, Integrated Earth Data Applications, the facility that oversees SESAR²). This change will accommodate the expansion of IGSN, through the IGSN e.V., to more allocating agents around the world.

A new user will still choose a 3-digit alphanumeric namespace (user code), for example ABC, and their IGSNs will be of the form: IEABC0001, where the first 5 digits are the full namespace and the last 4 digits are alphanumeric. This will give users 36^4 possible IGSNs, or over 1.5 million IGSNs.

This change will not affect existing IGSNs or namespaces (user codes), but will change all namespaces (user codes) and IGSNs allocated by SESAR² in the future.

If you are interested in becoming part of the SESAR² power users group, with access to new features in development, reply to info@54.224.199.193.

Recent Change to New SESAR² Namespaces (User Codes)

The Index to Marine and Lacustrine Geological Samples (IMLGS) that has been developed and maintained by NOAA’s NCEI, has been decommissioned and will no longer be accessible on the NCEI web site starting May 5, 2025. In order to ensure continued access and updates to the IMLGS, SESAR and NCEI have agreed that SESAR will take over stewardship of this resource. SESAR staff is working with NCEI and the marine and lacustrine repository community to ensure persistence of this valuable resource. 

SESAR is planning a phased approach to continuing the services of the IMLGS: 

Phase Ia (completed December 1, 2025): Provide access to the current content of the IMLGS. SESAR will create a user interface for searching the current IMLGS and displaying search results. The priority is to make the contents of the IMLGS accessible again as quickly as possible and minimize downtime after the May 5 shutdown of NCEI-based Interactive Map Tool.

Phase Ib (completed February 10, 2026): SESAR has assumed management of the IMLGS Curators Listserv, previously hosted by NCEI. This listserv is an unmoderated forum for discussion and announcements related to the Curators group and Index to Marine and Lacustrine Geological Samples (IMLGS) database. To join the listserv, request to join here (log in to a Google email account first, or email info@geosamples.org to be manually added to the list): https://groups.google.com/a/geosamples.org/g/imlgs

Phase II (in progress, requires additional funding): Fully integrate the IMLGS services with SESAR. SESAR is starting to work with NCEI and contributing sample repositories to understand their needs and desires for a streamlined data ingest process and user needs for search. Based on these needs and desires, we will generate an implementation plan and try to identify sources of funding to perform the necessary technical developments.

Please note that much of the IMLGS data remains accessible also via GeoMapApp here.

We are grateful for the many notes of support we have received from the community reiterating the importance of the IMLGS resource and expressing gratitude to SESAR for helping to steward this resource in the future. We thank the community for your continued support and patience with this transition. 

If you have questions or comments, please reach out to us at info@geosamples.org.

Notice to the Community Regarding the IMLGS

We are excited to announce the release of our new “Teams” feature, live now in MySESAR. Teams allows multiple users to work on a shared platform within MySESAR, each utilizing their own individual account. This feature was designed to support groups that require multiple members to access and maintain shared sample metadata within their institution. We will be hosting two informational webinars on March 24th and April 3rd to introduce the Teams feature. To sign up, please see the links below:

March 24, 2025 at 11am ET: Register here

April 3, 2025 at 2pm ET: Register here

With the release of the Teams feature, the legacy GeoPass login system will now officially shut down on June 1, 2025. After June 1, 2025, SESAR will solely utilize ORCID validation for login and access to MySESAR. If you have not yet added your ORCID to your account, you can do this by following the steps outlined in our previous newsletter describing the GeoPass Phase out.

Our team is ready to support you during this transition, if you have any concerns or questions please email us at info@geosamples.org.

New Feature Release: Teams Functionality

The following message was sent to SESAR users who are not yet using ORCID to log in to their MySESAR accounts, in anticipation of the shutdown of the legacy IEDA2 GeoPass authentication system in 2025.

Dear SESAR2 GeoPass User,

This message is to inform you that SESAR2 is shutting down its GeoPass login system on January 1st, 2025. You are receiving this message because you have a GeoPass account currently registered with SESAR2. 

After January 1st, 2025, SESAR2 will solely utilize ORCID validation for login and access to MySESAR. ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) is a free, unique, persistent identifier for individuals. Usage of this internationally-recognized identifier and validation service makes our system safer and easier to access.

ACTION REQUIRED FROM YOU: To ensure undisrupted access and functionality to your SESAR2 account, please login to MySESAR via GeoPass and add your ORCID by December 31st, 2024. You can do this now by:

Registering for an ORCID if you do not have one: https://orcid.org/register

Logging into your SESAR account using GeoPass: https://geopass.iedadata.org/josso/

Under “MyAccount,” add your ORCID. This will allow you to “Login with your ORCID” once GeoPass is no longer available.


For our institutional and web services users, we understand this transition may bring changes that impact your workflow:


For institutional accounts using GeoPass, the primary SESAR2 user from the institution should link their ORCID to the institutional GeoPass. In the coming months we will make changes on the backend that will make it possible to create “Organizations” within SESAR2 and assign and/or transfer sample management permissions to multiple people.

Web Services registrations will begin incorporating ORCID authentication in the coming months. Access through GeoPass will no longer be available after January 1st, 2025.


We are dedicated to helping make this transition as smooth as possible for you. Please email us at info@geosamples.org with any questions or concerns.

Thank you!
The SESAR2 Team

sesar

SESAR² Registrations Triple in a Year

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