Documenting Your Collections
Info-Muse Network Documentation Guide

Les guides électroniques de la SMQ

Specimen Collection (Specimen/Description)

Field to be used with an authority listField used for natural science collections

Definition:

  • This field describes the type of collection or type of group to which the specimen has been assigned.

Observations:

  1. For better search results in your database, avoid a large variety of terms; draw up an authority list and add keywords as necessary. Here is an example of an authority list:

    demonstration collection
    educational collection
    endangered species
    extinct species
    rare species
    reference collection
    research collection
  2. This field may be used to indicate that a specimen is part of a group.

Entry rules:

  1. Enter a keyword describing the contents of the collection, in keeping with the list established by your institution.
    Example

      Disciplineornithology
     GenusGavia
      Speciesimmer
    Specimen Collection educational collection
  2. When you want to indicate that a specimen belongs to a group, simply enter the accession number of the first and last specimens in the group in the Specimen Collection field. Enter the first accession number, followed by a space, "to", another space and the last accession number.
    Example 1

    Record for a tennantile specimen (1994.30.2) that is part of a set of twelve specimens numbered from 1994.30.1 to 1994.30.12

      Accession Number 1994.30.2
     Disciplinemineralogy
      Speciestennantile
    Specimen Collection 1994.30.1 to 1994.30.12
    Example 2

    Record for a stellata specimen (2000.8.10) that is part of a lot of twenty specimens numbered from 2000.8.1 to 2000.8.20

      Accession Number 2000.8.10
     Discipline ornithology
     Genus Gavia
      Species stellata
    Specimen Collection lot 2000.8.1 to 2000.8.20
  3. This field may contain multiple entries separated by a semicolon followed by a space.
    Example

      Discipline botany
     Genus Allium
      Species tricoccum
    Specimen Collection reference collection; endangered species

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