[Nhcoll-l] Heavy trays in Viking Cabinets for mammal and bird collections?

[Zhuang, Mingna]

Hi all,
Does anyone use Viking cabinets for their mammal and bird study skin collections? We were just sent a sample tray (23lbs for a slightly longer than standard Lane science style cabinet tray) and it's just so heavy. I really worry that if a student (or even me!) were to hold the tray, with specimens in them on a step stool that they would drop the tray or injure themselves. It would especially be an issue if they're trying to move the tray into/out of the cabinet when having to line up the tray edges. We were planning to get full size cabinets as our room for a taxidermy collections is really pressed for space. We were told that Spacesaver does not make lighter trays anymore so that they can accommodate more collections, but these heavy trays seem really unfeasible for researchers and staff that take whole trays out. I can see how these might be great for geology/paleo, but not sure if they really work for lighter collections that have lots of tray removal/reorganization.

If you are using these trays in full size cabinets, are you changing your protocols with regards to specimen removal? Another thing we've thought of is to get the Viking cabinets and then buy our trays somewhere else to get lighter ones.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!!!


Vicky (Mingna) Zhuang PhD.
Biodiversity Collections Manager
UTEP Biodiversity Collections
B209 Biology Building
University of Texas at El Paso
500 W University Avenue
El Paso, TX 79968
phone: 915-747-5479
email: mzhuang at utep.edu<mailto:mzhuang at utep.edu>
website: https://www.utep.edu/biodiversity/
facebook<https://www.facebook.com/utepbc>, twitter<https://twitter.com/utepbc>, Instagram<https://www.instagram.com/utepbc/>: @utepbc


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