[Nhcoll-l] Problematic Catalog Numbers

Tue Aug 12 12:11:10 EDT 2025

Hi Mackenzie,

As Dirk describes, I mainly assign accession numbers to our animals when we first get them and they then go into the freezer. We then catalog them once they are processed.
However, other collections do things differently. The DMNS catalogs material that is in their freezers, and you can find it on their database much faster than if you had to wait for someone to prep it. (See an example here: https://arctos.database.museum/guid/DMNS:Bird:58294). You might reach out to Andy Doll at the DMNS to see what process he has to accession and catalog material as it comes into the collection.

I like the being process status for things still in the freezer. If you cannot find it in the freezer, then you could mark it as missing, but if it is in there you could still bring it into the collection. If things are already cataloged, then you at least have the species ID, locality, and date of collection/salvage. That is still important info, so I wouldn't through the catalog record out.

Good luck! Freezer inventories are always a bit of a messy treasure hunt.

cheers,
Beth

Elizabeth Wommack, PhD
Curator and Collections Manager of Vertebrates
University of Wyoming Museum of Vertebrates
Berry Biodiversity Conservation Center
University of Wyoming,
Laramie, WY 82071
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Subject: [Nhcoll-l] Problematic Catalog Numbers

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Hello everyone,

Thank you to everyone who replied to my previous question about storing nests.

Now I am looking for some advice on a problem I have encountered with the numbers of our bird specimen collection. I am working through an inventory of everything we have right now, including an inventory of all the unprepared specimens in our freezers. In doing the freezer inventory, we found that there are specimens in the freezer that were never prepared but were given catalog numbers before preparation. I have never encountered this being done before, so I have no idea how common or uncommon it may be. I do however recognize the issues with such a protocol, as we used to have an additional freezer (prior to my starting at this institution) that failed and was not noticed to have failed until everything inside had rotted. I have no idea if an inventory of what was lost was taken before it was tossed, or whether unprepared specimens with catalog numbers were lost when this occurred, but based on what was found in the other freezers I suspect some were.

Has anyone else encountered this kind if scenario and have some kind of protocol for dealing with the aftermath? Without any notes about what specimens remained unprepared I suspect I may never be able to determine which were lost, but the current plan is to label anything not found at the end of the inventory as ‘missing’ in the database. I have also found some notes written in the margins of the catalog pages saying things like “285 to be prepared” but no additional information.

Any advice or insight is appreciated. Or even just hearing that my situation isn’t completely unique!

Thank you!

- Mackenzie

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Dr. Mackenzie Kirchner, she/her

Curator of Integrated Biology

San Bernardino County Museum

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