[Nhcoll-l] Databasing Specimens Collected from Other Specimens

[Lewis-Gentry, Genevieve]

Hello everyone,

We are running into an interesting collections issue for databasing in the Farlow Herbarium and we were wondering how other natural history collections are handling the issue.

Our example:
Insect specimens were collected, identified, and stored in an entomological collection. Later, the insects were checked for a type of fungus (Laboulbeniales) and when found they were removed and mounted on permanent slides in the fungal collections. What counts as the collecting information? The original collection information for locality etc? (Which is our thought.) Who is the collector? The person who collected the insect or the person who collected the fungus? There are collector numbers for both.

We assume things like this across other types of natural history collections. (Birds and mites are an example we thought could exist.) We are having it happen here between our herbarium and the entomological collections in the department as well as from loans from other entomology collections who are letting us keep and deposit the fungal material here.

We want to have the best data we can within our system capabilities as well as match how other collections are handling this type of issue.

Any thoughts, suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated. I am sure that we are not the only ones with cross collections issues like this.

Thank you so much and let me know if you want more information.
Genevieve

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Genevieve Lewis-Gentry, Curatorial Assistant
Farlow Herbarium, Harvard University Herbaria
22 Divinity Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138  U.S.A.
Phone: 617-495-2365  Fax: 617-495-9484
glewis-g at oeb.harvard.edu

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