[Nhcoll-l] barcoding pros and cons
Aren Gunderson
amgunderson at alaska.edu
Fri Feb 28 13:46:05 EST 2014
I am the Collection Manager for the Mammals Collection at the University of
Alaska Museum. We have 120,000 mammal specimens with probably 500,000
specimen parts and every part has a barcode on it. This does so much more
make loan processing easier.
I can look up the location of any part of any specimen without having to go
into the collection. I can bulk edit specimen data through
Arctos<http://arctos.database.museum/> with
barcodes. I can move objects en masse, whole cabinets, drawers, freezer
racks of parts and track all the objects within those containers with a
scan of 2 barcodes. Barcodes make specimen installation, reorganization,
data management so much more efficient and reliable.
If a student puts a specimen in the wrong drawer it can be lost forever
unless a whole scale search of the collection is undertaken. With barcoded
parts I can scan every object into its current position and any misplaced
objects will be found by their barcode. I suspect I could scan every object
in our collection into place in a week.
Of course barcodes are only as good as the software used to interface with
them and specimen data. With Arctos <http://arctos.database.museum/> barcodes
are fully integrated into specimen data and provide immeasurable utility
for collections management. I like barcodes a lot.
The cost is negligible to the benefit. EIM, http://www.barcode-labels.com/,
makes custom barcodes with whatever size and numbering system you want,
with a variety of adhesives that work on most materials and down to liquid
nitrogen temperatures. If you want to know which barcodes work best for
which applications I would be glad to advise. You can also get printers to
make your own barcodes.
At a minimum you could be using barcodes on all new specimens, if not
adding them to the entire existing collection.
Aren
--
Aren Gunderson
Mammals Collection Manager
University of Alaska Museum of the North <http://www.uaf.edu/museum>
amgunderson at alaska.edu
907-474-6947
On Fri, Feb 28, 2014 at 7:30 AM, Sara Vanessa Brant <sbrant at unm.edu> wrote:
>
> Hi Rick,
>
> We are a new collection, and since we are curate parasites (mostly
> helminths and ectoparasites), we have lots of small vials with worms and
> lots of slides. Our colleague Dr. Gordon Jarrell (copied here) can probably
> elaborate more on this, but he initiated and helped us develop the barcodes
> for our collection, based on his experience with the tissue collection in
> Alaska. Frozen tubes in boxes in racks in freezers creates an object
> tracking nightmare. Our barcoding system is integrated with our database,
> Arctos, making it that much easier to keep barcodes linked to catalogued
> specimens.
>
> So we have barcodes in our vials, on the jars containing the vials, on the
> shelf in the collection, on the row and on the rack - and so on. For our
> slide collection, we have barcodes on the slides that are scanned into a
> that has the positions of the slide box and the slide box has a barcode,
> and the shelf etc.... This has made it VERY easy for us to keep track of
> slides and vials and also eliminates our need to figure out a way to
> organize the specimens (by phylum, host, geography etc.) .
>
> Probably our greatest cost was the barcodes. The ones we use for the
> shelving, jars, and slide boxes are 1D and were not expensive. The ones we
> have on safe paper (time, alcohol, formalin, glycerin etc) in vials are 2D.
> The ones for our slides were much more expensive as they had to be mostly
> resistant at most to xylene, also 2D. The scanners to read 2D are a one
> time expense and we have three of them now and purchase when we can. We are
> also thinking of taking them into the field and barcode samples in the
> field, eliminating mistakes from hand written labels. All works in progress.
>
> But, we are new, and had some choice in how to set up a brand new
> collection and had some NSF money - that helped.
>
> Sara
>
>
>
> ******************************************************************************
> Sara Brant, Ph.D.
> Research Assistant Professor
> Senior Collection Manager Parasite Division
> Museum Southwestern Biology
> 1 University of New Mexico
> MSC03 2020
> Department of Biology
> University of New Mexico
> Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131-0001 USA
> Phone: 505-277-8171/277-2179 or 277-3174; FAX:505-277- 0304
> sbrant at unm.edu
> Alternative e-mail: blarinas at yahoo.com
> http://www.msb.unm.edu/parasites/index.html
> http://www.schistosomes.net
>
> Shipping UPS:
> University of New Mexico
> 219 Yale Blvd NE
> Albuquerque NM 87131
>
> Shipping Fedex or Freight shipments:
> University of New Mexico
> Castetter Hall Rm 1480
> Biology Department
> Albuquerque NM 87131
>
> ________________________________________
> From: nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu>
> on behalf of Bentley, Andrew Charles <abentley at ku.edu>
> Sent: Friday, February 28, 2014 09:18
> To: Richard Morse; nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
> Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] barcoding pros and cons
>
> Rick
>
> Most ichthyology and other wet collection do not usually go the barcoding
> route due to the cost benefit analysis of doing so. The only benefit of
> barcoding is that it provides you with an east mechanism for processing
> large loans, doing inventories or otherwise creating batches of specimens.
> In ichthyology collections and the like the cost of barcoding everything
> far outweighs the benefits given the relatively small number of specimens
> we loan every year in relation to for instance botany or entomology
> collections.
>
> Given that we do not have a tradition of barcoding specimens the cost of
> going back and do so is just too large for me...
>
> Hope that is fodder for a lively discussion...
>
> Andy
>
> A : A : A :
> }<(((_°>.,.,.,.}<(((_°>.,.,.,.}<)))_°>
> V V V
> Andy Bentley
> Ichthyology Collection Manager
> University of Kansas
> Biodiversity Institute
> Dyche Hall
> 1345 Jayhawk Boulevard
> Lawrence, KS, 66045-7561
> USA
>
> Tel: (785) 864-3863
> Fax: (785) 864-5335
> Email: abentley at ku.edu
> http://ichthyology.biodiversity.ku.edu
>
> SPNHC President-Elect
> http://www.spnhc.org
>
> : :
> A : A : A :
> }<(((_°>.,.,.,.}<(((_°>.,.,.,.}<)))_°>
> V V V
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu [mailto:
> nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Richard Morse
> Sent: Friday, February 28, 2014 10:07 AM
> To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
> Subject: [Nhcoll-l] barcoding pros and cons
>
> Hi Folks,
> Long time listener, first time post - our institution is debating whether
> or not to buy into barcoding devices. I am hoping to start a discussion on
> this board about the pros, cons and relative utility of such a system in
> relation to natural history collections and beyond. Or you can reply
> directly to my email!
> Your help and knowledge is greatly appreciated.
> Thanks! ---Rick
>
> Richard Morse, Ph.D.
> Collections Manager Ichthyology and Decapod Collection New York State
> Museum
> 145 Jordan Road
> Troy NY 12180
> 518 283 9005
> 518 473 8121
> rmorse at mail.nysed.gov
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> Natural History Collections (SPNHC), an international society whose
> mission is to improve the preservation, conservation and management of
> natural history collections to ensure their continuing value to
> society. See http://www.spnhc.org for membership information.
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> _______________________________________________
> NHCOLL-L is brought to you by the Society for the Preservation of
> Natural History Collections (SPNHC), an international society whose
> mission is to improve the preservation, conservation and management of
> natural history collections to ensure their continuing value to
> society. See http://www.spnhc.org for membership information.
>
--
Aren Gunderson
Mammals Collection Manager
University of Alaska Museum of the North <http://www.uaf.edu/museum>
amgunderson at alaska.edu
907-474-6947
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