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

[Zhuang, Mingna]

Thank you Paul! This is what I would expect. It seems many of the compactorr companies have moved to steel gauge drawers and no longer do aluminum in house. I'll check out Steel Fixture.

Thanks for the paper as well! We will be moving our malacology collections soon. Good to keep in mind.


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


From: Callomon,Paul <prc44 at drexel.edu>
Sent: Thursday, April 27, 2023 10:56 AM
To: Zhuang, Mingna <mzhuang at utep.edu>; nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: RE: Heavy trays in Viking Cabinets for mammal and bird collections?


EXTERNAL EMAIL: This e-mail is from a sender outside of the UTEP system. Please forward suspicious emails to security at utep.edu<mailto:security at utep.edu> or call 915.747.6324
Our current Malacology cabinets have aluminum drawers - 3 lbs each, more than rigid enough for 20-30 lbs of content, and very easy to handle. Steel Fixture Inc. in Topeka, KS, make them for us. See:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267271211_A_grand_scale_rehousing_the_mollusk_collection_at_the_Academy_of_Natural_Sciences


Paul Callomon
Collection Manager, Malacology and General Invertebrates
________________________________
Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University
1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia PA 19103-1195, USA
prc44 at drexel.edu<mailto:prc44 at drexel.edu> Tel 215-405-5096 - Fax 215-299-1170





From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu>> On Behalf Of Zhuang, Mingna
Sent: Thursday, April 27, 2023 12:24 PM
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>
Subject: [Nhcoll-l] Heavy trays in Viking Cabinets for mammal and bird collections?


External.
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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