[Nhcoll-l] Shelf depth for EtOH jar collections

Sun Feb 19 17:40:01 EST 2023

Dear all,

Thanks to everyone who weighed in on this topic, I really appreciate it and it has spawned a couple of really interesting practical and philosophical threads that have given me a lot to think about in terms of the ways that we store our spirit collection. May I just ask, Dean, about you all storing jars upside down (!!!)? I haven’t heard of this before, and it made me do a couple of double takes I must admit. Is the reasoning that, when upside down, there is no pressure on lids and seals? And I wonder if that doesn’t make your jars very wobbly? Anyway I am intrigued.

Thanks again everyone!

Cheers,

Tonya

From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> On Behalf Of Hendrickson Dean
Sent: Thursday, 16 February 2023 5:00 AM
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] Shelf depth for EtOH jar collections

I presented a talk at SPNHC in 2022 that discussed the extreme space crunch that forced us to convert a now sizeable portion of our fish collection from the classical taxonomy-ordered shelving to a much more compact and (we find in many ways) more efficient shelving system based on jar-size- and catalog-number. We’re very happy with the results so far, and coincidentally our legacy, second-hand library shelving enabled a handy solution to John’s point 1 – it takes us mere seconds to reliably monitor our fluid levels across an entire shelf full of upside-down jars. We still consider this experimental, but now have 4-5 years with many hundreds of jars in the test and still no sign of leaks. Mind you, these are all recently acquired and processed specimens, so new lids, liners, etc. More details are in the powerpoint and video of the presentation archived as Cohen, A. E., Hendrickson, D. A., & Casarez, M. J. (2022). Testing An Alternative Shelving Arrangement to Optimize Space and Task Efficiency in a Fluid Fish Collection. https://hdl.handle.net/2152/117476 (the shelf-jiggling fluid level monitoring is demonstrated at the end of the presentation).

Dean
[Fishes of Texas]<http://www.fishesoftexas.org/home/>Dean A. Hendrickson, Ph.D. (he/him/his)
Curator of Ichthyology, Biodiversity Center<https://biodiversity.utexas.edu/>, University of Texas<https://www.utexas.edu/>,
Texas Natural History Collections,10100 Burnet Rd., PRC176/R4000
Austin, Texas 78758 USA +1-512-656-9504 (cel.); Orcid<https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7835-0295> / lab<https://sites.cns.utexas.edu/hendricksonlab/home> / collection<https://integrativebio.utexas.edu/biodiversity-collections/collections/ichthyology-fish> / zoom<https://utexas.zoom.us/j/7165800443>

From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu>> On Behalf Of John E Simmons
Sent: Wednesday, February 15, 2023 10:07 AM
To: Dirk Neumann <d.neumann at leibniz-lib.de<mailto:d.neumann at leibniz-lib.de>>
Cc: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>
Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] Shelf depth for EtOH jar collections

The advice offered so far on this thread is excellent, particularly the idea of abandoning systematic arrangements. There are two other points in support of the advice that has already been offered that should be mentioned:

1-Deeper shelves do allow storage of collections in dense arrangements (assuming the containers are appropriately sized) but dense storage is a negative, not a positive. Yes, it saves a bit of space, but what is sacrificed is the ability to monitor the condition of the containers and specimens. The ideal arrangement would be shelves with only one row of jars because with that arrangement specimens and fluid level and color could immediately be seen, enabling the correction of developing problems, particularly loss of fluid. However, shelving with just one row of jars is not practical, so the question becomes how many rows of jars is practical? With two or more rows the jars in front must be moved to see the jars in back, which takes additional time and also, each time a jar is picked up and moved, it increases the risk of either compromising the container seal or getting the containers out of order. With deep shelves, so that the containers are several rows deep, the time spent monitoring the collection (checking for problems) increases enormously. In my experience, the time (and therefore the cost) of monitoring collections is rarely considered when planning collection storage, which is foolish. A fluid collection needs to be inspected regularly to avoid problems.

2-Systematic arrangements are false in the sense that they are not phylogenetic arrangements (nobody has branching shelving). What systematic arrangements do is simply re-create the linear scala naturae of Aristotle, using scientific names. The arguments that this allows for better exploration of the collection, etc., are silly. And as Paul points out, containers should not be opened in the collection storage room to examine specimens. Systematic arrangements made sense when collections were smaller, space was available, and scientific names were more stable. In a world of rapidly changing systematic arrangements, we should make good use of electronic databases to both bear the current name of species and to serve as a finding aid for containers, and arrange storage to efficiently store specimens in a stable environment on storage furniture designed to accommodate efficient monitoring of specimens and containers.

--John

John E. Simmons
Writer and Museum Consultant
Museologica
and
Associate Curator of Collections
Earth and Mineral Science Museum & Art Gallery
Penn State University
and
Investigador Asociado, Departamento de Ornitologia
Museo de Historia Natural, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima

On Wed, Feb 15, 2023 at 2:15 AM Dirk Neumann <d.neumann at leibniz-lib.de<mailto:d.neumann at leibniz-lib.de>> wrote:
Hi Tonya,

we recommend in our book<https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.universityproducts.com%2Fbest-practices-in-the-preservation-and-management.html&data=05%7C01%7C%7Ca2f1c5d22f6f4309555708db0f6eca88%7C31d7e2a5bdd8414e9e97bea998ebdfe1%7C0%7C0%7C638120740753119426%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=31cnDUwlkn1HxvWgHtYLmRAeYliJiJ%2FsbQQo9odGyZI%3D&reserved=0> (p. 94) to prefer 300 mm deep shelves. You can do deeper shelves (in Munich we had 450 mm), but this doesn't save space, as you cannot place more large jars on such such shelves.

Usually, large glass cylinders are rarely deeper than 300 mm. If there are larger containers, it might be worth considering 1 isle with deeper shelves (e.g., 450 mm) for these jars, or to arrange all large jars on special heavy duty shelves, as for example in the tank room at the NHM in London.

If you choose 440 mm deep shelves for the entire collection, you increase the required staff time for monitoring and maintenance, because usually the number of small jars is much higher, and there is a tendency that small jars are crowding on deeper shelves as the offer more space. Visual inspection of such densely packed shelves however needs more time. If staff time is a critical variable, 300 mm would be preferable.

Another point worth considering: deep shelves usually require wider isles and operating areas. This may not be intuitive right from the start, but you need to reach deeper into the (crowded) shelf. If the isle is as narrow as it would be for a 300 mm deep shelf, the risk to knock other jars is higher.

If available space in the new storage room is not the limiting factor, I would choose 300 mm deep shelves.

Hope this helps
Dirk

Am 15.02.2023 um 04:26 schrieb Haff, Tonya (NCMI, Crace):
Hi again everyone,

We are getting down to the pointy bit of having to confirm the desired depth of shelving for our new ethanol vault storage. Right now our shelves are only about 300mm deep, which is really not deep enough for some larger containers. We have specified 440mm deep shelving for the new space, but before pushing ‘go’ I thought I would ask if any of you have thoughts or very strong opinions about optimal shelf depth for storing jars of various sizes and smaller drums.

Thanks in advance for your input!

Cheers,

Tonya

-------------------------------------------------
Dr. Tonya M. Haff
Collection Manager
Australian National Wildlife Collection
CSIRO
+61(0)419569109
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****

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Stiftung Leibniz-Institut zur Analyse des Biodiversitätswandels
Postanschrift: Adenauerallee 127, 53113 Bonn, Germany

Stiftung des öffentlichen Rechts;
Generaldirektion: Prof. Dr. Bernhard Misof (Generaldirektor), Adrian Grüter (Kaufm. Geschäftsführer)
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