<div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div>Hi Sarah,</div><div><br></div>We sometimes have researchers request blocks of catalog numbers for projects they are working on. For example, someone recently went through some of our uncataloged material, identified a bunch of things, and wanted catalog numbers for some of them for figures in a manuscript. I gave them a block of uncataloged numbers and let them assign them as they needed. Once they are done, I will be able to catalog everything into our database all as one big group.<div><br></div><div>Todd<br><div><br></div></div><input name="virtru-metadata" type="hidden" value="{"email-policy":{"disableCopyPaste":false,"disablePrint":false,"disableForwarding":false,"enableNoauth":false,"expandedWatermarking":false,"expires":false,"sms":false,"expirationNum":1,"expirationUnit":"days","isManaged":false,"persistentProtection":false},"attachments":{},"compose-id":"5","compose-window":{"secure":false}}"></div><br><div class="gmail_quote" style=""><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, May 29, 2024 at 11:55 AM William Simpson <<a href="mailto:wsimpson@fieldmuseum.org">wsimpson@fieldmuseum.org</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 class="msg-7490246335009208247"><u></u>
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Hi Sarah, We used to "issue" blocks of numbers to researchers who were planning on putting the specimens they collected into our collections. In practice, we assigned them way more numbers than they ended up needing. I stopped this practice
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<p>Hi Sarah,</p>
<p>We used to "issue" blocks of numbers to researchers who were
planning on putting the specimens they collected into our
collections. In practice, we assigned them way more numbers than
they ended up needing. I stopped this practice when I started
managing the collection. At this point we have ~9,000 vacant
records. We do not go back and try to use these, but we <i>do</i>
maintain them as vacant records. Often the only data in them is
the name of the researcher for whom they had been reserved.
Otherwise, if they were simply missing from the database, their
absence might be taken for lost records and lost data.</p>
<p>Best,</p>
<p>Bill<br>
</p>
<div><b style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"> <br>
William F. Simpson (he)</b><br style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">
<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:medium;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);float:none;display:inline">Head of Geological Collections</span><br style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">
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<div>On 5/29/24 1:37 PM, Sarah K. Huber
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">For various reasons, we have a few hundred
catalog numbers that were never assigned to collection
objects. What do your collections do with unused catalog
numbers? I’m debating if I should use these numbers when
cataloging our backlog/no data specimens, or if I should just
ignore these numbers and never assign a collection object to
them.
<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;color:black;background:white">Sarah
K. Huber, Ph.D. (she/her)</span><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;color:black;background:white"><br>
Curatorial Associate, VIMS Nunnally Ichthyology Collection<br>
Office 804.684.7104 | Collection 804.684.7285<br>
<a href="mailto:skhuber@vims.edu" target="_blank"><span style="color:blue">skhuber@vims.edu</span></a> |
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<span style="color:blue">http://www.vims.edu/research/facilities/fishcollection/index.php</span></a></span><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;color:black"><br>
<span style="background:white">PO Box 1346 | 1370 Greate
Rd., Gloucester Pt., VA 23062</span><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
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</div></blockquote></div><br clear="all"><div><br></div><span class="gmail_signature_prefix">-- </span><br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr">Todd R. Clardy, PhD<div>Collections Manager of Ichthyology</div><div>Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County</div><div>900 Exposition Blvd</div><div>Los Angeles, CA 90007</div><div>tel: (213) 763-3374</div><div>On <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/toddclardy.bsky.social" target="_blank">Bluesky</a></div><div>Website: <a href="http://toddclardy.com" target="_blank">toddclardy.com</a></div><div><br></div></div></div></div></div>