Accessing EMu

EMu is software that is hosted on an internal server and runs on your desktop. The Museum’s database manager (Bill Mertz) is responsible for maintaining this system and for providing access.

User accounts

Every person who uses EMu should have their own account, and even temporary users (e.g. students) should never share an account. This is because EMu tracks user actions with an audit trail, which allows an administrator to see exactly who was involved if a problem exists. To request a new account, send the full name of the new user to the Museum’s database manager.

It is important to only request accounts for users who will actively use EMu, and to tell the database manager when an account should be closed. We track LACMIP non-staff accounts in a spreadsheet called EMu_LACMIP-Users.xlxs in the folder Dropbox > EMu > Admin.

Guest access

For visiting researchers or other users who need read-only access to LACMIP data in EMu, they can log in under the username “ipviewer” and password “ipviewer.”

Logging in & out

To log in to EMu, open the program and enter your username and password. You will also need to enter data for the host (“emu”) and service (“emulacm”). It is very important that when you are done using EMu you shut down the program. The Museum pays for a certain number of licenses, which means that only an amount of users equal to the number of licenses can have EMu open at any given time.

If you would like to change your password, open any module in EMu and go to Tools > Change Password…

Remote access

Users can access EMu offsite from the Museum (e.g. at the LACMIP warehouse) via the Marconi server. Marconi connects you to a remote desktop at the Museum, which runs the actual EMu software. You will need to log in to the Museum’s VPN before you can complete the EMu login process described above.

To log in remotely, go to https://vpn.nhm.org and enter your username and password. If you are a full-time staff member, you should be able to use the same credentials as you use for your email (if not, ask IT to set you up with VPN access). For part-time staff, interns, and volunteers, IT has created four generic VPN logins for LACMIP to use. The usernames and passwords for these accounts can be found in a spreadsheet called EMu_LACMIP-Users.xlxs in the folder Dropbox > EMu > Admin.

Once logged in, at the bottom of the page you should see a link to Terminal Server (MARCONI). Clicking on this will run Marconi in your browser. Once Marconi is running, you will see a remote desktop from which you can open the EMu application. When you are done using Marconi, exit by clicking the door icon in the upper right toolbar. Marconi will automatically log you out after two hours for security purposes, but when it does so any applications you were running on the remote desktop should remain open (so you won’t lose anything, you’ll just need to log in again).

To transfer files into the remote desktop, drag and drop them. You will see a status bar in the lower right corner of the window, and once the file has uploaded you can find it in the G on Guacamole RDP folder of the computer. To transfer files from the remote desktop to your local computer, drop them into the the folder G on Guacamole RDP > Downloads.

User permissions

Permissions for LACMIP EMu users are determined by what “permission group” they log in under. These groups are set up and assigned to users by the Museum’s database manager. The following permission groups are currently in use:

Invertebrate Paleontology

This group is for LACMIP full-time staff, and gives them permissions to create, edit, and delete Catalogue, Multimedia, Bibliography, Site, Taxonomy and Locations records. Staff can create Lookup and Transaction records, but not delete or edit them. Staff can only view Accession and Party records, and there are field-level restrictions in multiple modules.

Members of the Invertebrate Paleontology permission group also have the ability to set security permissions on groups that they create. This is important because by default users can only edit or delete groups that they create.

IP Cataloging

LACMIP part-time staff and volunteers who participate in cataloging will log in under this permission group. Modules and tabs that are extraneous to cataloging are hidden for this group in order to streamline the user interface.

IP Cataloging users are restricted from editing anything in the Taxonomy or Sites modules and from using the Global Replace tool. In order to control data quality, these users are also required to select a value from an existing lookup list for many fields, e.g. Institution Code.

IP Georeferencing

LACMIP part-time staff and volunteers who participate in georeferencing will log in under this permission group. Modules and tabs that are extraneous to cataloging are hidden for this group in order to streamline the user interface.

IP Georeferencing users are restricted from editing anything in the Taxonomy or Catalogue modules and from using the Global Replace tool. In order to control data quality, these users are also required to select a value from an existing lookup list for many fields, e.g. Start Age.

IP IMLS

LACMIP part-time staff and volunteers working to edit specimen records in the type collection will log in under this permission group. Modules and tabs that are extraneous to cataloging are hidden for this group in order to streamline the user interface.

IP Cataloging users are restricted from editing anything in the Taxonomy or Sites modules and from using the Global Replace tool. In order to control data quality, these users are also required to select a value from an existing lookup list for many fields, e.g. Institution Code.

IP Importer

This permission group is an extension of the “Invertebrate Paleontology” group, with the added ability to edit the Loc ID field in the Sites module. All full-time LACMIP staff should be able to log in under this group, but the only reason to do so is if you are migrating georeferencing data into EMu from Google Earth.

Sharing

Data in all modules is shared by everyone with access to the Invertebrate Paleontology collection in EMu.

Reports and lists created by one user may be shared with other users if the creator so chooses. If a list or report is shared, only the owner can edit it. However, a shared user can copy the original report/list to create their own which they can then edit. Shared lists do not disappear from other users when the user who created them has their account closed.

Mac vs. PC

EMu can only be used on a Mac computer via remote access (above) or a virtual simulator such as Parallels or VMWare. Remote access is slightly different on a Mac versus a PC. Certain features, such as copy-pasting between your local desktop and the remote desktop, do not work but the general functionality is equivalent. For key commands, remember to use the ctrl key vs. the command key.