[Nhcoll-l] Protocols for curating and digitizing wood specimens and fluid-preserved plant specimens?

[Mare Nazaire]

Greetings everyone,

We are preparing to work on some of our ancillary collections to curate and
digitize them but I am falling short of finding good protocols for wood
specimens and fluid preserved specimens.

The current state of our wood collection is specimens with non-archival
labels stapled (!!!) to the specimen. I've read about various ways in which
we could better prepare these specimens - including stamping accession
numbers into the wood; drilling a hole in the specimen to attach a label;
placing in archival plastic bags; or placing in archival paper sleeves or
boxes. Since we want to barcode and image these materials we are looking
for protocols that would also incorporate this step.

For our fluid preserved plant specimens - I've seen lots of protocols on
digitizing other organisms (e.g., fish) but have not seen any (to my
knowledge) protocols for digitizing fluid preserved plant material.
Additionally, many of these specimens were sealed by dipping their tops in
wax to prevent any loss of the fluid. I don't know if a best practice
approach would be to just image in the jar or to remove and image. If the
latter, then I wonder if moving the specimens into new jars would be the
best approach. I would also be concerned about changing fluids and causing
the specimens to become more brittle.

I welcome any guidance or experience you have and are willing to share.
Thanks so much in advance.

~Mare

-- 
Mare Nazaire, Ph.D.
Administrative Curator, Herbarium [RSA-POM]
California Botanic Garden
Research Assistant Professor, Claremont Graduate University
1500 North College Avenue
Claremont, California 91711
909.625.8767 ext. 268
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