[Nhcoll-l] Unused catalog numbers

[Douglas Yanega]

We "recycle" GUID labels rather than leave gaps in our database. This 
allows us to get a far more accurate count of specimens that are 
registered in the database, and also makes it so we can assume that a 
specimen record with a GUID but no data entered corresponds to a 
physical specimen in our collection, but that has simply not had its 
data captured yet. Records that literally have no physical specimen are 
flagged as such so they can be filtered out easily.

Honestly, this helps our workflow; we have, at any given time, anywhere 
from one to three people assigning serial GUIDs to specimens they are 
working with. If I have a single specimen or small series that I need to 
assign a GUID to, it is helpful if I can pick up one or more spare GUIDs 
out of the "recycle" dish, and reassign them "on the fly", so I don't 
have to interrupt any of the other people who are working by stealing 
one or more of their labels and throwing their serialized sequence off. 
The need for very small sets of GUID labels is frequent, and it would be 
very disruptive if I didn't have a dish of extra labels I could grab 
from at need.

Peace,

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