[Nhcoll-l] software to automate database entries into tags

[Thomas J Trombone]

Hi Catherine,

Do you have access to Microsoft Office, and if so, have you considered using the mail merge functionality in Word to link a template document to an Excel spreadsheet containing your specimen data? That's how we often print labels for our specimens. (We use EMu for our collections database, but we like to modify our printed labels in ways that are far too idiosyncratic to be easily generated by EMu and Crystal Reports.)

Best,
Tom

Thomas J. Trombone | Data Manager | Department of Ornithology
American Museum of Natural History | Central Park West @ 79th Street | New York, NY 10024-5192
(212) 313-7783 | trombone at amnh.org<mailto:trombone at amnh.org> | http://www.amnh.org/our-research/vertebrate-zoology/ornithology

From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> On Behalf Of Catherine Early (she/her)
Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2023 3:35 PM
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: [Nhcoll-l] software to automate database entries into tags

EXTERNAL SENDER

Hi all,

We are preparing for a digitization project where we will associate field data with specimens that do not currently have data tags, just field numbers. Because the field notes are idiosyncratic and not in a standardized format, we (staff) will be entering the specimen's data directly into our database rather than photographing standard format data tags that can be easily transcribed by volunteers into a database. After the data have been entered in the database, we would like to print data tags to attach to each specimen.

I'm looking for a software program that can take a CSV from a specimen database (we use Re:discovery and do not have the resources to switch any time soon) and automatically populate the fields of a data tag template with the appropriate information from the CSV. Obviously the user would have to map the fields of the CSV to the field of the data tag, but once that is done, it would be a simple importing step then checking to make sure it worked. Does this kind of program exist already?

Best,
Catherine

[https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/mail-sig/AIorK4wD9JXWFLGfFGcjNPg9ybTqLuzHoh9SsWwN0epasNsoagFJsUsqboDVGj5yunC50y06p5F7S5Y]

Catherine M. Early, PhD

she/her/hers

Barbara Brown Chair of Ornithology

cearly at smm.org<mailto:cearly at smm.org>

https://catherineearly.wixsite.com/home




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