anti-krist asked: how do you go about cataloging each specimen? i need help organizing some of my own bones and don't know where to begin. would much appreciate any help or suggestions! thanks! :)
One of my first posts was about cataloging! You could probably go about it in a less complex way than we are required to, but I’ll give you the rundown anyway. Every time we get a new donation it needs to be assigned a yearly accession number and form so we can keep track of the donor information. Recording where the materials came from is half of the point of having them. So the first specimen I accessioned this year was given UMZM-2012-01, the following UMZM-2012-02, and so on. Last years final accession number was UMZM 2011-15, letting us know we got 15 new accessions in that year. In one accession we might receive multiple specimens/materials, anywhere from 1 to 600 or more.
For the accession form, we record the Donor and their research affiliation if given, Date Donated, Materials Donated (this gets quite specific as we list all of the individual bones if it is not a complete skeleton, and specify broken and partial specimens), Locality of Materials (as specific as possible — Lat./Long. if you have them, but least of all State and County, and a notable landmark in the area — on railroad tracks between mile marker A and B; base of Mount Jumbo; 15 miles SE of Lolo in Bitterroot Valley, etc). Not least of all you want to list the species of animal and who identified it in case it comes into question later — and know that you cannot collect certain materials without having certain research, state, or federal permits. Next, oftentimes the Donor is different from the Collector, but in your case it may be the same person (i.e. you) — it is still important to record that you collected and/or ‘donated’ it in case you begin acquiring specimens from other people down the line. We also record every last detail we know about the specimen ranging from how it died, to noted abnormalities/pathologies, and any additional information (if it was a domestic animal we contact the owners to get its vet records, that kind of thing). The more information really is the better.
Ultimately, the Catalog is just a way to compile all of this information in a neat/orderly fashion. Our catalog reads across the top like this:
Catalog Number/Species/Sex/Age/Material/Accession Number/Collector/Collector’s Number/Date Collected/In card file(Y/N)/Additional information in file(Y/N)/State: County/Specific Locality/State or County record (Y/N)/Reproductive information/Measurements: Weight/Preparator/Date Cataloged/Cataloged By.
So you can pick and choose from that list what info you want to record in your catalog— for instance, you probably aren’t doing large research projects so you won’t have/need Collector’s Number and so on.
You’re going to want to invest in some archival ink pens, string, and some card stock tags to affix to your new accession — we only write the catalog number on the bones and write the rest of the information on small tags which are then punched, strung, and tied onto the bones. Otherwise, we put them in small vials with their cards. What you write on the card is up to you — it could just be the catalog number, but we rerecord every detail in multiple areas for clarification purposes.
Hope this gets you started on your way towards your very own natural history collection!! Think of it this way: when you die and leave your legacy to some local museum/natural history center, they will love you that much more for doing your part as a naturalist and recording this most important information.
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