ecatalogue > Catalog

This tab summarizes basic information about specimen custody, counts, and identifiers, including the catalog number that serves as the primary identifier for a specimen that has been accessioned into the collection. Most fields on this tab should be populated in every record.

Museum

Field	Value
ItemPrompt	Museum
ColumnName	CatMuseum
DataKind	dkAtom
DataType	Text
LookupName	Collection Custody

The name of the museum that has custody of the specimen

Usage

Required for all records

Allowed Values

NMNH

Museum Acronym

Field	Value
ItemPrompt	Museum Acronym
ColumnName	CatMuseumAcronym
DataKind	dkAtom
DataType	Text

The acronym used when displaying the catalog number. Most specimens at NMNH use the acronym “USNM” (short for United States National Museum), but both Mineralogy and Petrology & Volcanology switched to “NMNH” decades ago, much to the consternation of various parties.

Usage

Required for all records

Allowed Values

NMNH (Mineralogy and Petrology & Volcanology)
USNM (Meteorites)

Department

Field	Value
ItemPrompt	Department
ColumnName	CatDepartment
DataKind	dkAtom
DataType	Text

The name of the department that has custody of the specimen

Usage

Required for all records

Allowed Values

Mineral Sciences

Division

Field	Value
ItemPrompt	Division
ColumnName	CatDivision
DataKind	dkAtom
DataType	Text

The name of the division within a department that has custody of the specimen

Usage

Required for all records

Allowed Values

Meteorites
Mineralogy
Petrology & Volcanology

Catalog

Field	Value
ItemPrompt	Catalog
ColumnName	CatCatalog
DataKind	dkAtom
DataType	Text

The name of the catalog within the division. Only Mineralogy has multiple catalogs (Gems and Minerals).

Usage

Required for all records

Allowed Values

Gems
Meteorites
Minerals
Rock & Ore Collection

Collection Name

Field	Value
ItemPrompt	Collection Name
ColumnName	CatCollectionName_tab
DataKind	dkTable
DataType	Text
LookupName	Collection Name

The name of the collection or collections the specimen has been assigned to. Each division divides its holdings into collections, that is, subsets with some common feature. Collections may be named after collectors, donors, or an aspect of the collection itself (like a specific place, project, or specimen type).

Usage

Recommended for all records

Format

Include the word “Collection” in each collection name. For collections named after a person, use their full name if possible. A single specimen may be assigned to multiple collections. For example, a type mineral might include both the Type Minerals Collection and a collection named after the collector.

Examples

Inventory Collection
Sea Floor Rock Collection
Washington A. Roebling Collection

Prefix

Field	Value
ItemPrompt	Prefix
ColumnName	CatPrefix
DataKind	dkAtom
DataType	Text
LookupName	Catalog Prefix

An alphabetic prefix added to the beginning of the catalog number to specify a catalog number series. A series is similar to a collection. Mineralogy uses prefixes to distinguish series.

Usage

Omit if record is not part of a prefixed series

Format

A single capital letter

Allowed Values

Number

Field	Value
ItemPrompt	Number
ColumnName	CatNumber
DataKind	dkAtom
DataType	Integer

The numeric part of a catalog number. A catalog number may represent a single specimen or a group of related specimens.

Usage

Required for all records

Format

The Antarctic meteorites collection in Meteorites uses the same catalog number to represent all the specimens from a single field collected during a single year. It does not assign suffixes to individual records. Catalog numbers are essentially worthless for this collection, and it is best to refer to individual Antarctic meteorites by the NASA-style meteorite number.

Petrology & Volcanology often uses a single catalog number to represent a group of related specimens, for example, specimens collected at a single locality by the same collector. Individual specimens may be distinguished by suffixes.

Suffix

Field	Value
ItemPrompt	Suffix
ColumnName	CatSuffix
DataKind	dkAtom
DataType	Text

An alphanumeric suffix used to distinguish specimens with the same catalog number.

Usage

Omit if no appropriate data is available

Format

Suffix format and meaning vary by division. When publishing the catalog number, suffixes should be delimited with a hyphen.

Mineralogy typically uses a two-character alphanumeric suffix. Numeric suffixes are zero-padded to two-characers if needed (for example, “1” becomes “01”). The first specimen for a given catalog number is assigned the suffix “00” (but note that this suffix is often omitted when catalog numbers are published.)

Petrology & Volcanology typically uses a numeric suffix. Suffixes are not zero-padded. In labels for GGM, suffixes were zero-padded to four characters, but this is not typical.

Barcode

Field	Value
ItemPrompt	Barcode
ColumnName	CatBarcode
DataKind	dkAtom
DataType	Text

Not used

Part Number

Field	Value
ItemPrompt	Part Number
ColumnName	CatPartNumber
DataKind	dkAtom
DataType	Integer

Not used

Whole/Part

Field	Value
ItemPrompt	Whole/Part
ColumnName	CatWholePart
DataKind	dkAtom
DataType	Text
LookupName	Catalog Whole/Part

Whether a record represents a specimen in its entirety or a part of a complex specimen. For example, consider a specimen from the mineral collection containing multiple species. In some cases, each species has been cataloged separately, in which case using “Part” in this field would be appropriate.

Usage

Required for all specimens

Allowed Values

Part
Whole

Cataloged By

Field	Value
ItemPrompt	Cataloged By
ColumnName	CatCatalogedByRef
DataKind	dkAtom
DataType	Reference
RefTable	eparties

A reference to the party record for the cataloger. For new records, the cataloger is the person who creates the digital record, either by creating a record in the client or submitting a record in another format to be imported.

Usage

Omit if no appropriate data is available

Date Cataloged

Field	Value
ItemPrompt	Date Cataloged
ColumnName	CatDateCataloged
DataKind	dkAtom
DataType	Date

The date the specimen was cataloged. For records entered directly into the client, the cataloged date is the date the record is created. For imported records, the cataloged date is the date the import spreadsheet was submitted to the data manager. For records first entered into an earlier database, the cataloged date is the entry date in the ledger.

Usage

Omit if no appropriate data is available

Format

Kind Of Object

Field	Value
ItemPrompt	Object Type
ColumnName	CatObjectType
DataKind	dkAtom
DataType	Text
LookupName	Object Type

The type of object represented by the record

Usage

Required for all records

Allowed Values

Specimen/Object

Specimen Count

Field	CatSpecimenCount	CatSpecimenCountModifier
ItemPrompt	Specimen Count	Modifier
ColumnName	CatSpecimenCount	CatSpecimenCountModifier
DataKind	dkAtom	dkAtom
DataType	Integer	Text
LookupName		Count Modifier

The number of objects represented by this record.

Usage

Required for all records

Format

Counting objects can be tricky, so here are some general guidelines:

The count is based on the primary object represented by a record. For most records, this will be a rock or mineral, in which case the count will be the number of rock/mineral fragments. Preparations, like thin sections or powders, are counted separately using the preparation grid.

For some records, the primary object is itself a prepation, like vial of powder or box of thin sections. In this case, the specimen count is the number of preparations.

Mineralogy sometimes uses “10” or “100” with a modifier of “plus” to signify that there are a large number of objects that have not been counted exactly.

Examples

Box containing three large rock fragments: 3
Box containing a hand sample and vial of power: 1
Box of 200 thin sections: 200

Original Count

Field	CatOriginalCount	CatOriginalCountModifier
ItemPrompt	Original Count	Modifier
ColumnName	CatOriginalCount	CatOriginalCountModifier
DataKind	dkAtom	dkAtom
DataType	Text	Text
LookupName		Count Modifier

Not used

Other Counts

Field	CatOtherCountsType_tab	CatOtherCountsValue_tab
ItemPrompt	Type	Value
ColumnName	CatOtherCountsType_tab	CatOtherCountsValue_tab
DataKind	dkTable	dkTable
DataType	Text	Integer
LookupName	Other Counts Type

Not used

Other Numbers

Field	CatOtherNumbersType_tab	CatOtherNumbersSource_tab	CatOtherNumbersValue_tab
ItemPrompt	Type	Source	Value
ColumnName	CatOtherNumbersType_tab	CatOtherNumbersSource_tab	CatOtherNumbersValue_tab
DataKind	dkTable	dkTable	dkTable
DataType	Text	Text	Text
LookupName	Other Numbers Type	Other Numbers Source

Additional identifiers used to refer to the specimen, like the field number assigned by the collector.

Usage

Omit if no appropriate data is available

Format

Each row must include both Kind and Value. Source is rarely populated and can be omitted. Examples of typical kinds are provided below.

Identifiers should be populated verbatim. Previous collections staff sometimes zero-padded identifiers to a common length so that they would sort properly in a spreadsheet. Do not do this! It makes it difficult to find occurrences of those specimens in the literature.

Each identifier should be given its own row in the grid. Do not combine multiple identifiers into a single row, even if they are the same kind.

The first row with the Kind “Collector’s field number” will appear in the summary line at the top of the record.

The other numbers grid has been used to store information about recataloged specimens. This information is often ambiguous. For example, some specimens were recataloged only in part, which is not always clear from entries in the other number grid. This information should be added to the Relationships tab instead.

Examples

Collector’s field number
IGSN
Lab number
Parent IGSN
VG number