<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:x="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:excel" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii">
<meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 14 (filtered medium)">
<!--[if !mso]><style>v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
.shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
</style><![endif]--><style><!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Tahoma;
panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:blue;
text-decoration:underline;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:purple;
text-decoration:underline;}
span.EmailStyle17
{mso-style-type:personal;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:windowtext;}
span.EmailStyle18
{mso-style-type:personal-reply;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
font-size:10.0pt;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
--></style><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]-->
</head>
<body lang="EN-US" link="blue" vlink="purple">
<div class="WordSection1">
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">Hi Paul,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">Funny you should use birds as your example, as the AMNH Ornithology Department does just this. Since our collection’s inception we have assigned different catalog numbers to the various elements derived from
the same bird, and in fact now have five independent catalog number series: skins, skeletons, alcohol specimens, tissue samples, and egg/nest sets. A bird may be represented by one or more numbers in any of those series (depending on which preparations exist
in our collection) and the numbers are entirely independent of one another., i.e., skin 800,000 may correspond to skeleton 30,000 and to tissue 20,000.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">We considered moving away from this system a few years ago but decided for the sake of expediency that it was best to maintain it. For one thing, the different numbers have appeared in publications over the years.
Moreover, we had no interest in physically renumbering existing specimens to match a new unified approach.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">Personally, I think it’s best to go with a single catalog number per organism or lot if you have the choice. A drawback to our current approach is that there is no single number series that applies to every bird
in our collection. That is to say, a bird specimen consisting of simply a skin might be described by AMNH SKIN 800,000, while a specimen consisting of only a skeleton may be AMNH 30,000 (which is an entirely different bird than the one numbered AMNH SKIN 30,000.)
And a bird consisting of a skeleton and a tissue sample might be described by AMNH SKEL 30,000 *<b>and</b>* AMNH DOT 20,000. Of course you run into an analogous problem involving suffixes with a single-number system, but at least you can say for sure which
bird a given integer refers to: the number 5,000 would apply to only one bird, whereas at AMNH that number has been used five times, for an unrelated skin, skeleton, alc, tissue, and egg/nest.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">My two cents.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">Tom<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">__________________<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">Thomas J. Trombone<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">Data Manager<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">Division of Vertebrate Zoology - Ornithology<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">American Museum of Natural History<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">Central Park West @ 79th Street<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">New York, NY 10024-5192<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">Phone: (212) 313-7783<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">Email: trombone@amnh.org<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D">URL: http://research.amnh.org/ornithology/<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<div>
<div style="border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in">
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""> nhcoll-l-bounces@mailman.yale.edu [mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces@mailman.yale.edu]
<b>On Behalf Of </b>Callomon,Paul<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Thursday, 10 March 2016 1:28 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> NH-COLL listserv (nhcoll-l@mailman.yale.edu)<br>
<b>Subject:</b> [Nhcoll-l] Multiple numbers<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Colleagues:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In some collections, individual components of a lot that are stored in a particular medium (for example: the empty dry shell, frozen tissue snip and alcohol-preserved body from the same snail or the dry skin and fluid-preserved guts of
a single bird) each get different catalog numbers. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The question: All other things being equal, is it better collections management practice for all parts of a single lot to have the same catalog number (perhaps with different states of preservation indicated separately or as prefixes/suffixes)?
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">A “lot” is defined as all specimens collected at the same time in the same place. This can be a single bird or a hundred pond snails.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">How do you handle this in your collection?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:black">Paul Callomon</span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:black"><br>
<i>Collection Manager, Malacology, Invertebrate Paleontology and General Invertebrates</i></span><span style="color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;background:white">
<span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:black">
<hr size="2" width="100%" align="center">
</span></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:black">Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, Philadelphia<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:black">1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia PA 19103-1195, USA<br>
<i><a href="mailto:callomon@ansp.org" target="_blank">callomon@ansp.org</a> Tel 215-405-5096 - Fax 215-299-1170</i></span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
</body>
</html>