[Nhcoll-l] Unique IDs for museum objects versus specimens

[Doug Yanega]

On 8/13/14 4:01 PM, Colin Favret wrote:
> Has anyone dealt with the distinction between issuing unique IDs (for 
> labels and database records) for museum objects versus specimens? A 
> case in point might be a microscope slide with 100 specimens on it (or 
> a jar, envelope, etc.). These specimens can be of multiple taxa, 
> different sexes, life stages, etc. I believe most collections label 
> the museum object (slide, jar, envelope, etc.) with a unique 
> identifier and then treat the specimens as a lot, but this doesn't 
> fully parse out the data associated with the various specimens in a 
> specimen database.
>
> I've developed my own solution (unique ID label for the object, 
> decimal numbers but no label for the individual specimens or specimen 
> lots - e.g. INST123456 for the slide, INST123456.001 for the first 
> specimen lot, INST123456.002 for the second, etc.).
>
> But I'm wondering what others have done or if there is anything out 
> there approaching an industry standard.
When multiple specimens in the same "unit" are the same species, our 
database has fields for number of total specimens, number of males, 
number of females, number of "other" (any non-adult). There is only one 
database record, therefore, regardless of how many specimens (very 
convenient for vials). When multiple *taxa* are together, they each get 
the same number with a suffix, and each unique taxon gets a separate 
record in the database (e.g., UCRC ENT 34775a, UCRC ENT 34775b, UCRC ENT 
34775c). We don't distinguish between individual specimens of the same 
taxon in either case UNLESS one or more is a type specimen, and even 
then we prefer to re-mount them individually.

The most common case we have is predatory insects pinned together with 
their prey items, or parasitoids mounted with the corpse of their host. 
We now discourage this particular practice, since a database allows 
specimens to be linked without requiring them to be on the same pin.

Peace,

-- 
Doug Yanega      Dept. of Entomology       Entomology Research Museum
Univ. of California, Riverside, CA 92521-0314     skype: dyanega
phone: (951) 827-4315 (disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
              http://cache.ucr.edu/~heraty/yanega.html
   "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
         is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82

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