[NHCOLL-L:2358] RE: organizing critters

[William L. Gannon]

All:

Also for mammal collections there are standards that are adopted by most 
collections published by the Systematic Collections Committee of the 
American Society of Mammalogists - their website (where a PDF is 
available of the standards in the Recent Mammal Collections Directory) 
is http://www.mammalsociety.org/.  WIlliam Stanley at the Field Museum 
is the Chair-elect for that committee.  So how specimens are organized 
in a collection should be according to the Standard - at least for 
mammal collections.

Bill Gannon
MSB Mammals
Univ New Mexico

Susan Woodward wrote:

>I would agree completely with Jean.  I manage a mammal collection.  We
>organize the collection systematically by -Order, Family - and and
>alphabetically -Subfamily (Rodents only), Country, Province/State,
>County, where appropriate-.  I have developed a few wayfinding
>documents and diagrams to assist people using the collection.  The most
>valuable of these is a database to the Genus level with the cabinet
>number or number range in which each Genus is found, and the shelf
>number (or range) upon which wet material is stored.  Sorted lists by
>cabinet, genus, or higher level systematic groupings provide all the
>info anyone needs to find material in the collection, assuming they know
>their alphabet!  To document organization to any finer level is simply a
>make-work project given the staffing levels and demands on our time.
>
>Good luck,
>Susan Woodward
>
>
>Susan M. Woodward
>Assistant Curator
>Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation
>     Biology - Mammals
>Royal Ontario Museum
>100 Queens Park
>Toronto, ON
>M5S 2C6
>
>Phone      416 / 586-5768
>                 (internally dial 5084)
>FAX          416 / 586-7921
>E-mail       susanw @ rom.on.ca  
>
>  
>
>>>>"Demouthe, Jean" <jdemouthe at calacademy.org> 6/17/2004 11:41:16 AM
>>>>
>>>>        
>>>>
>Dear Mark:
>
>While I agree that it is wonderful to know exactly where each specimen
>is, it
>is difficult to maintain the accuracy of this level of information in
>an
>active collection unless you have the staff to stay on top of every
>move and
>transaction.
>
>I suggest you evaluate your available staff time and decide how it will
>best
>be spent, based on how your collections are used.  
>
>good luck.
>
>Jean DeMouthe
>Cal. Academy of Sciences
>San Francisco
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: owner-nhcoll-l at lists.yale.edu
>[mailto:owner-nhcoll-l at lists.yale.edu] On
>Behalf Of Mark McNamara
>Sent: Thursday, June 17, 2004 7:39 AM
>To: NHCOLL-L at lists.yale.edu 
>Subject: [NHCOLL-L:2322] (no subject)
>
>We have a multidiscplinary collection consisting of 44,000 catologed
>specimens divided into Herbarium, Malacology, Geology, Paleontology,
>Ornithology, Herpetology, Entomology, Mammalogy, etc.  
>
>We have traditionally recorded the location of the specimens in the
>database down to the drawer or shelf in most cases.  This is both
>wonderful when you are looking for a specific item and tediuos when
>things are disorganized.
>
>I feel that it is essential to know the exact location down to the
>drawer, but a co-worker disagrees.
>
>Should we continue this level of organization or would it be
>acceptable
>to just know what cabinet specimens are located in?
>
>What is the most common/best practice?  Any thoughts?
>
>
>
>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 
>
>  
>
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