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    <div class="moz-cite-prefix">... maybe two more thoughts, picking up
      what Rob & John said yesterday:</div>
    <div class="moz-cite-prefix"><br>
    </div>
    <div class="moz-cite-prefix">Even though barcodes are ubiquitous and
      dirt cheap, most are designed to be used and read once. As the
      barcode itself seems to be a reliable, convenient way to
      accelerate collection management workflows, the printing  (as
      Hannu pointed out) is one of the weak points. Adhesives (as
      barcodes usually are not printed directly onto herbarium sheets)
      might be another. Barcodes stickers that peel-off in 10 or 20
      years because adhesives fail quickly turn a conveniently
      manageable collection into a nightmare.</div>
    <div class="moz-cite-prefix"><br>
    </div>
    <div class="moz-cite-prefix"> Same applies for any sort of external
      stickers (with or without barcodes) e.g. in frozen collections.
      Therefore if sticker-dependent systems are introduced, printers,
      inks, stickers and adhesives should be selected with necessary
      care.</div>
    <div class="moz-cite-prefix"><br>
    </div>
    <div class="moz-cite-prefix"> Another thing John pointed to is that
      barcodes are by definition considered to be unique. This
      uniqueness however is not necessarily the same as an unique
      identifier or an (not always unique) catalogue number as we use
      them in natural history collections. We all know the fun
      especially historic collections with a huge diversity of different
      catalogue numbers have to offer. The point is - and John mentioned
      this when referring to the Latin root of the word
      catalogue/catalog/Katalog/catálogo - usually these numbers count
      upwards and intend to introduce logic systems (e.g. by combining
      numbers and digits) that give (hopefully) some reason for the
      sorting and/or arrangement of the items they are get associated
      with.</div>
    <div class="moz-cite-prefix"><br>
    </div>
    <div class="moz-cite-prefix">A barcode cannot full fill this
      function. The number may be unique, but it is erratic, without
      intrinsically encoding for anything, except the purpose it has
      been given (could be the price of milk in a supermarked). Some
      collections prefer to use customised barcodes to improve this, but
      still, the application of barcodes to objects is random (even if
      you peel them off in sequence).</div>
    <div class="moz-cite-prefix"><br>
    </div>
    <div class="moz-cite-prefix">Thus, if barcodes are introduced to
      collections to replace catalogue numbers for whatever reason or
      purpose, it surely will work for some time (as John pointed out),
      but such systems lack an important component: the logic linkage to
      the collection and thus contained objects (regardless of how
      unlogical the style or makeup of the catalogue number itself might
      be).</div>
    <div class="moz-cite-prefix"><br>
    </div>
    <div class="moz-cite-prefix">It might be worth considering this if
      barcode systems are introduced.</div>
    <div class="moz-cite-prefix"><br>
    </div>
    <div class="moz-cite-prefix">With best wishes</div>
    <div class="moz-cite-prefix">Dirk  <br>
    </div>
    <div class="moz-cite-prefix"><br>
    </div>
    <div class="moz-cite-prefix"><br>
    </div>
    <div class="moz-cite-prefix">Am 24.02.2021 um 18:25 schrieb John E
      Simmons:<br>
    </div>
    <blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CAF7GCDb3PYsDXMQ=zg_cZPZ_LV81RrFqcA-DX7S4ZGnOLKq_YA@mail.gmail.com">
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          <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in
0.0001pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Barcodes
            are
            useful for many purposes, particularly for sorting,
            inventory, and preparing
            loans, but a barcode should not ever be used a replacement
            for the unique numerical
            identifier of a museum specimen. A barcode can be a
            duplicate of a catalog
            number or can encode a catalog number, but it should not be
            a replacement for
            the simple reason that the useful life of a barcode is
            limited to the availability
            of the hardware and software necessary to read it. Barcodes
            have only been in
            widespread use since the early 1980s, which is a mere blip
            in the length of
            time that museum specimens are useful, and they are already
            being rapidly displaced
            by QR codes and RFID tags (and neither of these will be
            around in another 50
            years, either). It is highly unlikely that the barcodes in
            use today will be
            readable in another 20 years. <span></span></p>
          <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in
0.0001pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span> </span></p>
          <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in
0.0001pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">It
            is imperative
            that as managers of collections, we consider the long-term
            usability of the
            collections and data that we care for. Databases and
            barcodes are useful tools,
            but they are not permanent. We must consider the future
            cost, liability, and
            carbon footprint of continually upgrading databases (which
            is always fraught
            with loss and data degradation), and the fugitive nature of
            tools that come to
            us from industry, such as barcodes (once industry is done
            with the tool, it
            will disappear from the market). Without a clearly marked
            catalog number that
            can be read by a human being, specimens marked only with
            barcodes will be very
            difficult to manage, and collections will be faced with the
            enormously
            expensive task of replacing barcodes with catalog numbers on
            specimens that
            lack them.<span></span></p>
          <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in
0.0001pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span> </span></p>
          <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in
0.0001pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">It
            should also
            be pointed out that you can achieve the permanence of a
            clearly marked catalog
            number with the convenience of a barcode by writing or
            printing the catalog numbers
            on tag or label and reading them with an optical scanner.<span></span></p>
          <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in
0.0001pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span> </span></p>
          <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in
0.0001pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">The
            confusion between accession number and catalog number is the
            result of the
            words being used for years as synonyms, which they are not.
            From a legal
            aspect, the distinction is important. Accessioning is the
            process by which a
            museum takes possession of an object or specimen and thus
            becomes legally
            responsible for it; cataloging is the process or organizing
            into distinct
            categories. The word accession is derived from the Latin
            word <i>accessio</i>,
            meaning increase; catalog is derived from the Latin <i>catalogus</i>,
            meaning a
            counting up.<span></span></p>
          <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in
0.0001pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span> </span></p>
          <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in
0.0001pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">The
            importance of the accession number is that it should be the
            number that links
            all information (documentation) about the object or specimen
            and its
            acquisition. For this reason, such documents as bills of
            sale, permits, permissions,
            import/export declarations, field notes, etc. should all be
            marked with the
            accession number.<span></span></p>
          <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in
0.0001pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span> </span></p>
          <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in
0.0001pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">All
            museums
            use (or should use) a unique numerical identifier to
            distinguish individual
            objects or specimens, but because of the way collections are
            acquired, which
            number a museum uses and what that number is called varies.
            Because most art
            and history museums acquire objects one-by-one, they usually
            use an accession
            number both to register each object and link it to its
            documentation, and to identify
            it. However, in natural history museums we usually acquire
            objects in groups of
            more than one, and label them with a single accession
            number. To distinguish
            individual objects within the same accession, we assign
            individual catalog numbers
            to them (individually, or by lot, depending on the tradition
            in the discipline).<span></span></p>
          <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in
0.0001pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span> </span></p>
          <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in
0.0001pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">What
            is
            important is that all museums are doing the same thing―we
            acquire objects, take
            possession of them (accession them), and then mark them with
            a unique identifier
            (an accession number or a catalog number). <span></span></p>
          <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in
0.0001pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span> </span></p>
          <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in
0.0001pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">These
            are
            the definitions from <i>Museum Registration Methods</i> (6<sup>th</sup>
            edition, 2020):<span></span></p>
          <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in
0.0001pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">An
            accession
            is “<span>one or more objects acquired at the
              same</span> <span>time from a single source constituting
              a single addition to the permanent</span> <span>collection.”
              <span></span></span></p>
          <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in
0.0001pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span><span> </span></span></p>
          <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in
0.0001pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span>Accessioning
              is “the formal process of taking possession
              of</span> <span>and recording of one or more
              objects for inclusion in the</span> <span>collection,”
              and thus the accession number is “a unique control number
              used to</span> <span>identify the object(s) in an
              accession.” <span></span></span></p>
          <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in
0.0001pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span><span> </span></span></p>
          <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in
0.0001pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span>A
              catalog is a “list of the contents of a collection,”
              and cataloging means “to organize the information about
              accessioned</span> <span>collection objects into
              categories; the creation of a</span>
            <span>record of information specific to an
              object,” thus a catalog number is “a</span> <span>number
              assigned to an individual</span> <span>object
              during the cataloging process.”<span></span></span></p>
          <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in
0.0001pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span><span> </span></span></p>
          <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in
0.0001pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span>For
              more detailed information on the legal aspects of what
              accession means in museums, see chapter four of A Legal
              Primer on Managing
              Museum Collections (3<sup>rd</sup> edition, 2012).</span></p>
          <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in
0.0001pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><br>
          </p>
          <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in
0.0001pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">--John</p>
          <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in
0.0001pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><br>
          </p>
          <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in
0.0001pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span></span><span></span></p>
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                                              <div>
                                                <div dir="ltr"><font
                                                    size="2"><span
                                                      style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">John
                                                      E. Simmons<br>
                                                      Writer and Museum
                                                      Consultant</span></font></div>
                                                <div dir="ltr"><font
                                                    size="2"><span
                                                      style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">Museologica<br>
                                                      <i>and</i><br>
                                                      Associate Curator
                                                      of Collections<br>
                                                      Earth and Mineral
                                                      Science Museum
                                                      & Art Gallery<br>
                                                      Penn State
                                                      University<br>
                                                      <i>and</i><br>
                                                      Investigador
                                                      Asociado,
                                                      Departamento de
                                                      Ornitologia<br>
                                                      Museo de Historia
                                                      Natural,
                                                      Universidad
                                                      Nacional Mayor de
                                                      San Marcos, Lima</span></font><br>
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      <br>
      <div class="gmail_quote">
        <div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, Feb 24, 2021 at 10:06
          AM Miller, Andrew Nicholas <<a
            href="mailto:amiller7@illinois.edu" moz-do-not-send="true">amiller7@illinois.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">
          <div>
            <div>Now that we are barcoding our herbarium specimens, we
              are thinking about dropping our historical method of
              assigning internal accession numbers.  Is there any reason
              to keep both numbers.</div>
            <div><br>
            </div>
            <div>Thanks,</div>
            <div>Andy</div>
            <div><br>
            </div>
            <div>
              <div id="gmail-m_1135608612396419881divtagdefaultwrapper"
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style="font-size:12pt;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif">
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                  <div><font size="2"><span style="font-size:10pt">
                        <div>
                          <div
                            style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:15px">–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––</div>
                          <div
                            style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:15px">Andrew
                            Miller, Ph.D.</div>
                          <div
                            style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:15px">Mycologist
                            and Director of the Herbarium/Fungarium</div>
                          <div
                            style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:15px">University
                            of Illinois</div>
                          <div
                            style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:15px">Illinois
                            Natural History Survey</div>
                          <div
                            style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:15px">1816
                            South Oak Street</div>
                          <div
                            style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:15px">Champaign,
                            IL  61820-6970</div>
                          <div
                            style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:15px">phone:
                            (217) 244-0439</div>
                          <div
                            style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:15px">email: <a
                              href="mailto:amiller7@illinois.edu"
                              rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"
                              moz-do-not-send="true">amiller7@illinois.edu</a></div>
                          <div
                            style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:15px">website: <a
href="http://wwx.inhs.illinois.edu/research/pi/amiller" rel="noopener
                              noreferrer" target="_blank"
                              moz-do-not-send="true">http://wwx.inhs.illinois.edu/research/pi/amiller</a></div>
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                            style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:15px"><br>
                          </div>
                          <div
                            style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:15px">Office
                            address:</div>
                          <div
                            style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:15px">Robert
                            A. Evers Laboratory</div>
                          <div
                            style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:15px">Room
                            2003</div>
                          <div
                            style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:15px">1909
                            South Oak Street, MC-652</div>
                        </div>
                      </span></font></div>
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          NHCOLL-L is brought to you by the Society for the Preservation
          of<br>
          Natural History Collections (SPNHC), an international society
          whose<br>
          mission is to improve the preservation, conservation and
          management of<br>
          natural history collections to ensure their continuing value
          to<br>
          society. See <a href="http://www.spnhc.org" rel="noreferrer"
            target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">http://www.spnhc.org</a>
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          Advertising on NH-COLL-L is inappropriate.<br>
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      <pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">_______________________________________________
Nhcoll-l mailing list
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:Nhcoll-l@mailman.yale.edu">Nhcoll-l@mailman.yale.edu</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/nhcoll-l">https://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/nhcoll-l</a>

_______________________________________________
NHCOLL-L is brought to you by the Society for the Preservation of
Natural History Collections (SPNHC), an international society whose
mission is to improve the preservation, conservation and management of
natural history collections to ensure their continuing value to
society. See <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.spnhc.org">http://www.spnhc.org</a> for membership information.
Advertising on NH-COLL-L is inappropriate.
</pre>
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    <p><br>
    </p>
    <div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
      <p><img src="cid:part7.F7DD23F6.453AC484@snsb.de" alt=""
          width="152" height="59"></p>
      <p><br>
        Dirk Neumann<br>
        <br>
        Tel: 089 / 8107-111<br>
        Fax: 089 / 8107-300<br>
        neumann(a)snsb.de<br>
        <br>
        Postanschrift:<br>
        <br>
        Staatliche Naturwissenschaftliche Sammlungen Bayerns<br>
        Zoologische Staatssammlung München<br>
        Dirk Neumann, Sektion Ichthyologie / DNA-Storage<br>
        Münchhausenstr. 21<br>
        81247 München<br>
        <br>
        Besuchen Sie unsere Sammlung:<br>
        <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.zsm.mwn.de/sektion/ichthyologie-home/">http://www.zsm.mwn.de/sektion/ichthyologie-home/</a><br>
        <br>
        ---------<br>
        <br>
        Dirk Neumann<br>
        <br>
        Tel: +49-89-8107-111<br>
        Fax: +49-89-8107-300<br>
        neumann(a)snsb.de<br>
        <br>
        postal address:<br>
        <br>
        Bavarian Natural History Collections<br>
        The Bavarian State Collection of Zoology<br>
        Dirk Neumann, Section Ichthyology / DNA-Storage<br>
        Muenchhausenstr. 21<br>
        81247 Munich (Germany)<br>
        <br>
        Visit our section at:<br>
        <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.zsm.mwn.de/sektion/ichthyologie-home/">http://www.zsm.mwn.de/sektion/ichthyologie-home/</a><br>
        <br>
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