[Nhcoll-l] software to automate database entries into tags

[Alison H. Harrington]

Hi Catherine,

To second Tom, I had the same question and reached out to some other
herbarium colleagues. The overwhelming answer I got was also to use the
MailMerge function in Microsoft. There are some decent tutorials on it and
it is pretty flexible in terms of formatting. We use Specify as the
database of record and although it has a label generation function, that
function seems to have broken before I started my position and I've never
used it.

Mailmerge has a couple of minor quirks but it is a broadly used tool so
there are many answered questions online.

best,
Alison

-- 
*Alison H. Harrington, PhD*
*Research Collections Manager | Fungi, Lichens, Bryophytes*
University of Michigan Herbarium (MICH) | Research Museums Center
3600 Varsity Drive #1042 | Ann Arbor, MI 48108-2228
Collection of Zoosporic Eufungi at UM (CZEUM) | czeum.herb.lsa.umich.edu
alisonhh at umich.edu | 734.936.8028

On Thu, May 11, 2023 at 3:46 PM Thomas J Trombone <trombone at amnh.org> wrote:

> Hi Catherine,
>
>
>
> Do you have access to Microsoft Office, and if so, have you considered
> using the mail merge functionality in Word to link a template document to
> an Excel spreadsheet containing your specimen data? That’s how we often
> print labels for our specimens. (We use EMu for our collections database,
> but we like to modify our printed labels in ways that are far too
> idiosyncratic to be easily generated by EMu and Crystal Reports.)
>
>
>
> Best,
>
> Tom
>
>
>
> Thomas J. Trombone | Data Manager | Department of Ornithology
>
> American Museum of Natural History | Central Park West @ 79th Street | New
> York, NY 10024-5192
>
> (212) 313-7783 | trombone at amnh.org |
> http://www.amnh.org/our-research/vertebrate-zoology/ornithology
>
>
>
> *From:* Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> * On Behalf Of *Catherine
> Early (she/her)
> *Sent:* Thursday, May 11, 2023 3:35 PM
> *To:* nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
> *Subject:* [Nhcoll-l] software to automate database entries into tags
>
>
>
> *EXTERNAL SENDER*
>
>
>
> Hi all,
>
>
>
> We are preparing for a digitization project where we will associate field
> data with specimens that do not currently have data tags, just field
> numbers. Because the field notes are idiosyncratic and not in a
> standardized format, we (staff) will be entering the specimen's data
> directly into our database rather than photographing standard format data
> tags that can be easily transcribed by volunteers into a database. After
> the data have been entered in the database, we would like to print data
> tags to attach to each specimen.
>
>
>
> I'm looking for a software program that can take a CSV from a specimen
> database (we use Re:discovery and do not have the resources to switch any
> time soon) and automatically populate the fields of a data tag template
> with the appropriate information from the CSV. Obviously the user would
> have to map the fields of the CSV to the field of the data tag, but once
> that is done, it would be a simple importing step then checking to make
> sure it worked. Does this kind of program exist already?
>
>
>
> Best,
>
> Catherine
>
>
>
> *Catherine M. Early, PhD*
>
> *she/her/hers*
>
> Barbara Brown Chair of Ornithology
>
> cearly at smm.org
>
> https://catherineearly.wixsite.com/home
>
>
>
>
>
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