[NHCOLL-L:1803] Freezers and monetary specimen value

[Travis Marsico]

The University of Arkansas Herbarium is planning the purchase of a new freezer 
for prevention of insects on botanical specimens. The question I have is what 
are the differences in a front load vs. a top load freezer? The Herbarium 
Handbook published at Kew insists on a top load freezer because less cold is 
lost when adding and removing specimens. However, I am running into problems 
balancing tall stacks of specimens in our current top loader. If you have 
experience with freezers used in this capacity, please provide insight into 
this problem and make some suggestions.

Also, Dr. Johnnie Gentry (Museum Director, Herbarium Curator) is currently 
under an assessment of all collections for a summary report. These collections 
include those of the herbarium. In addition to our current holdings, we have 
also recently received the herbarium from Lyon College. We are interested in a 
figure (an assessed dollar value) of mounted and unmounted specimens. I 
suppose this dollar amount would come in terms of processing and maintenance, 
as herbarium specimens are not supposed to have any commercial value.

I would really appreciate responses to each of these matters.

Thank you,

Travis Marsico
University of Arkansas Herbarium (UARK)
Biomass Research Center 141
Fayetteville, AR 72701
(479) 575-4372
tmarsic at uark.edu