[Nhcoll-l] Unused catalog numbers

[Todd Clardy]

Hi Sarah,

We sometimes have researchers request blocks of catalog numbers for
projects they are working on. For example, someone recently went through
some of our uncataloged material, identified a bunch of things, and wanted
catalog numbers for some of them for figures in a manuscript. I gave them a
block of uncataloged numbers and let them assign them as they needed. Once
they are done, I will be able to catalog everything into our database
all as one big group.

Todd


On Wed, May 29, 2024 at 11:55 AM William Simpson <wsimpson at fieldmuseum.org>
wrote:

> Hi Sarah, We used to "issue" blocks of numbers to researchers who were
> planning on putting the specimens they collected into our collections. In
> practice, we assigned them way more numbers than they ended up needing. I
> stopped this practice
> 
>
> Hi Sarah,
>
> We used to "issue" blocks of numbers to researchers who were planning on
> putting the specimens they collected into our collections.  In practice, we
> assigned them way more numbers than they ended up needing.  I stopped this
> practice when I started managing the collection.  At this point we have
> ~9,000 vacant records.  We do not go back and try to use these, but we
> *do* maintain them as vacant records.  Often the only data in them is the
> name of the researcher for whom they had been reserved.  Otherwise, if they
> were simply missing from the database, their absence might be taken for
> lost records and lost data.
>
> Best,
>
> Bill
>
> * William F. Simpson (he)*
> Head of Geological Collections
> McCarter Collections Manager, Fossil Vertebrates
> Gantz Family Collections Center
>
> *Field Museum of Natural History*
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> On 5/29/24 1:37 PM, Sarah K. Huber wrote:
>
>
>
> For various reasons, we have a few hundred catalog numbers that were never
> assigned to collection objects. What do your collections do with unused
> catalog numbers? I’m debating if I should use these numbers when cataloging
> our backlog/no data specimens, or if I should just ignore these numbers and
> never assign a collection object to them.
>
>
>
> Sarah K. Huber, Ph.D. (she/her)
> Curatorial Associate, VIMS Nunnally Ichthyology Collection
> Office 804.684.7104 | Collection 804.684.7285
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-- 
Todd R. Clardy, PhD
Collections Manager of Ichthyology
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
900 Exposition Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90007
tel: (213) 763-3374
On Bluesky <https://bsky.app/profile/toddclardy.bsky.social>
Website: toddclardy.com
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