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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>
</div>
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data-smartmail="gmail_signature">
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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>
</div>
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</div>
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</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
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</div>
</div>
</div>
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<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"
dir="ltr"
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>
<div
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>
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