[NHCOLL-L:1672] Pinned Insect Specimen Labels

[Brad Hubley]

Hi all;

For some time now, we've been creating "double" labels for specimens that we've collected and pinned.  The top label typically contains: country, province or state, park name (if any), locality, elevation, date, collector(s), and our catalogue number.  The bottom label contains collecting method, habitat, and longs. and lats. if we have them.  We score a light line between the top and bottom label, fold it over and then stick the pin through it.  Even though we have developed an efficient process for generating these labels, it does lead to increased time in labeling specimens.  I'm wondering what the consensus is out there, if any at all, as to what most folks consider to be essential information on their specimen labels.

One of our double labels would typically look like:

VIETNAM, Thua Thien-Hue:
Bach Ma Natl. Pk., vicinity
park entrance. 26m
25 May 2002. B. Hubley
DC Darling. ROM 2002502

Mercury vapour light, open
scrub behind guesthouse
16°15'0.8"N, 107°52'24.3"E

Whereas  a single label would just contain the first 5 lines of text (6 lines makes it too big using a 4 pt. font).

Are we engaged in overkill by creating these bottom labels?  Is the top label information enough?  FWIW, all of this information is stored in our database (MS-Access) and the labels generated by exporting to WordPerfect (so we can format the labels).   If we were to go with just the top label, all of the information that we now print on the bottom label can be easily located in the database by searching for the ROM number, e.g. ROM 2002502.  Or would most folks like to see the additional information on the bottom label?

Your thoughts on this are greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Brad


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
  Brad Hubley
  Entomology Collection Manager
  Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Biology 
  Royal Ontario Museum
  100 Queen's Park, Toronto, Ontario           
  Canada    M5S 2C6

  Phone:  1-416-586-5764 
  FAX:      1-416-586-5553 
  email:  bradh at rom.on.ca 
  Visit our website at: http://www.rom.on.ca/ontario/ 

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