<div dir="ltr">I love this question! We've discussed this quite a bit around here. Since most of our images are attached to individual specimens or as a group photo of the entire lot, we do not make digital images a preparation on their own. The reason being that if you pull a photo for publication, you will want to know which individual is represented in the photo. If we pull an individual specimen out of a lot to be photographed separately, we make that specimen a separate prep and attach the image to it. We did toy around with making some of our really nice, high res, images their own preparations for tracking purposes. For example, if someone wanted to use an image in a publication, we could "loan" the preparation, but it ended up creating problems and ultimately it made more sense to just have a separate prep for that particular specimen with its images attached. However, it is possible in our database to have a digital-only preparation. If an imaged specimen were to become lost or destroyed, the images associated with it would remain as the preparation. So in a sense, that would be a digital-only preparation. This is the case for a few of our specimens that we haven't been able to find in our collections, but were photographed many years ago. Hopefully, those specimens will eventually be found and reunited with their images. In this case we have a preparation type "digital" to make it clear for those doing a search that there is no physical specimen to borrow. As to your question concerning counts, I'm not sure I have a good answer for that one. I only include actual specimens when reporting counts, however, in the future there could be a need for digital count. If for instance there were a fire, and much of the physical collection were destroyed, then the digital collection would become more important. This is definitely something to think about. In this case, I would include my preparations listed as digital-only in my count. The short answer is that although I personally think of images as attachments, I do think it is important to have a system in place for digital-only preparations in the future. We don't know where technology will go next, and there may be reasons to have separate preparations that we haven't currently considered.---Liath<div><br><div><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div><font size="2">Liath Appleton<br></font></div><div><font size="2">Collections Manager</font></div><div><font size="2">Non-Vertebrate Paleontology Lab</font></div><div><font size="2">University of Texas at Austin</font></div><div><div>Bldg PRC122 - campus mail code R8500<br>10100 Burnet Road</div><div>Austin, TX 78758</div></div><div><br></div><div><font size="2">SPNHC Connection Editor (<span style="color:rgb(85,85,85);white-space:nowrap"><a href="mailto:newsletter@spnhc.org" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank">newsletter@spnhc.org</a>)</span></font></div><div><font size="2">SPNHC Web Manager (<a href="mailto:webmaster@spnhc.org" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank">webmaster@spnhc.org</a>)</font></div><div><a href="http://www.spnhc.org/" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank"><font size="2">www.spnhc.org</font></a></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><br></div></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Mon, Aug 24, 2020 at 3:16 PM Bentley, Andrew Charles <<a href="mailto:abentley@ku.edu">abentley@ku.edu</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
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<p class="MsoNormal"><a name="m_7006488221941237512__GoBack"></a><span style="font-size:11pt">Hi all<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt">I am trying to resolve a philosophical conundrum brought on by the ever-increasing mountain of digital data being produces from and associated with natural history collections. My question is whether digital
representations of an object (images, CT scans, etc.) should be treated as preparations of an object in a collections database similar to other physical preparations or treated differently? For instance, in a fish collection like mine, you have a lot that
has a certain number of specimens. Some of those may be subsequently cleared and stained or have skeletons prepared. These are traditionally handled as preparations of the original lot with the same catalog number (although in some collections they are treated
as separate catalog numbers). Now, however, you have digital representations of those physical objects such as images, CT scans, etc. Should these also be treated as preparations or be treated differently - as digital products or linked as attachments to
the physical objects? To me, they are not physical objects but digital representations of the original object. As such, they are somewhat different to a preparation. This has implications when totaling traditional counts of objects in a collection as well
as when publishing data from a collection to the aggregator community. In some instances, this may be governed by the data model and business rules of the CMS you are using or by your personal preference.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt">I would be interested in hearing your views on this and how you handle this in your collection as I am not sure there is any community consensus as to which way to handle these. I have heard of both methods
being used in various collections.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt">Thanks in advance<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt">Andy<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;color:black"> A : A : A :<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;color:black"> }<(((_°>.,.,.,.}<(((_°>.,.,.,.}<)))_°><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;color:black"> V V V<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;color:black">Andy Bentley<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;color:black">Ichthyology Collection Manager<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;color:black">University of Kansas<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;color:black">Biodiversity Institute<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;color:black">Dyche Hall<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;color:black">1345 Jayhawk Boulevard<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;color:black">Lawrence, KS, 66045-7561<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;color:black">USA<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;color:black"> <u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;color:black">Tel: (785) 864-3863<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;color:black">Fax: (785) 864-5335 <u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;color:black">Email: <a href="mailto:abentley@ku.edu" target="_blank"><span style="color:blue">abentley@ku.edu</span></a> <u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;color:black"><a href="http://ichthyology.biodiversity.ku.edu/" target="_blank"><span style="color:blue">http://ichthyology.biodiversity.ku.edu</span></a><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;color:black"> <u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;color:black"> A : A : A :<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;color:black"> }<(((_°>.,.,.,.}<(((_°>.,.,.,.}<)))_°><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;color:black"> V V V<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
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