[NHCOLL-L:2352] Collection organization

[Mark McNamara]

Thank you to all who offered opinions and comments regarding my question
of whether to record exact object locations down to the drawer.  I am
fascinated by the considerable disagreement and differences between
institutions and collection disciplines.  Of course every institution
and collection is different in size, frequency of use, type and
efficiency of the database, collection growth rate, frequency of
inventory, available staff, and many other factors which many of you
listed.

I am surprised that a systematic vs non-systematic debate occurred, I
never meant to imply that collections not be organized systematically. 
Our collections are both organized systematically as well as having
specimen location recorded down to the drawer.   Even in a small
collection in which I am familiar with the taxonomy, it is usually
easier to look up the location in the database and find the cabinet and
drawer by number rather than go to the cabinet and start pawing through
drawers.

Of course I am lucky that our very forward thinking past curator worked
furiously to create a functional database.  I truly feel for anyone who
is still struggling to database their collection.

Also from your responses it seems that many in our profession are only
pretending to embrace modern technology and really are more comfortable
using traditional physical organization methods.  I suspect these are
often curators, perhaps longing for the days when the physical
systematic collection was the database.  To them I say, "wake up it is
2004.  We have computers for this."

Many expressed that it would be too time consuming to keep up with,
others expressed the exact opposite that spending extra time physically
searching the collection is too time consuming and damaging to
specimens.

The most compelling reason for knowing object location down to the
drawer in my case is for fast and efficient ongoing computerized
inventory utilizing volunteers.  Here we rely on volunteers that may not
be taxonomy experts.  The volunteer first sorts the database by cabinet
and drawer, checks the contents of the drawer against the sorted
database, checks off whether each item is present or missing, and puts
the inventory date in the database.  At this time changes to the drawer
locations and other data can be made.  This system allows the volunteer
to sit at his computer station and inventory the drawer contents.

Without giving volunteers the tools to do the job efficiently we could
not get the job done at all given our small staff.  

Is there a more efficient way to inventory?


Thank you very much for the education and for the insight.


Your Friend,

Mark McNamara
Natural History Collection Manager
Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History
1900 N. Chaparral Street
Corpus Christi, Texas 78401
Email: MarkM at CCTexas.com
Web Page: www.CCMuseum.com