How to Catalog Your Collection/Field Data?

[coloradeo]

I have become interested in cataloging my collection and also better tracking where and when I have personally caught Leps in the field so I don't have to consult a field notebook or worse yet try to remember! I guess the problem I am asking about is two-fold -- do you catalog what you have caught and do you catalog your field data so you can return at the same or different times to a site to have a good sense of what you will find or explore it at a different time of the season?

I have experimented with Excel/Google Sheets and have landed there for the moment, but before winter strikes and I dig in further on one approach or another, I was curious what what you all do, if anything, to track what you have and if you track any of the collection data? I am a good position yet as my collection is smallish so it is still something I could manage to catalog in my free time, unlike many of you who have been at it longer than me. Have you found value in doing so? How do you do it?

Eric

[wollastoni]

Good topic !

This is what I do :
- all my Delias collection is catalogued on an excell file with number of specimens and sexes per species. Very useful to know what you have and what you don't ave when you have a large collection.

- I also have some other excell files per locality : the species I have encountered on some specific collecting localities that I often visit (Fontainebleau, Frehel, French Alpes spots...). Very interesting to follow population and species dynamics in a specific locality. Useful also to prepare your collecting trips there.  

Olivier

[Paul K]

I don’t do cataloging as perhaps I should.
All data is on the labels of my specimens.
However when I will finish spreading all my leps and respreading older specimens on new stainless pins I am thinking of photographing all specimens and include digital data to each one, but that will be a huge task.

Paul
PS. I just want to add that 95% of my collection is collected by myself and in such a case field records could be possible to do opposite to purchased material.

[Adam Cotton]

If your data labels are prepared on an Excel file it effectively becomes a searchable catalogue.

Adam.

[deliasfanatic]

My system is strictly old-school. I have everything written manually on index cards, one (or more) per taxon. Each card begins with taxon name, followed by sex, location, date, and sometimes collector and price paid. Multiples of the same taxon are written below the first entry; if I have many, more may be written on the back of the card, and/or additional cards. If I have two or more with exactly the same data, I'll just put this number next to the male- or female-mark to avoid writing it again. Cards are then filed according to family or subfamily as suits my needs, and alphabetically within those groups.

I tried for several years to come up with a good digitalization plan, but 1) I never found a program that was exactly right for my needs, and 2) it would take years, I suspect, to input data from thousands upon thousands of specimens. I finally decided I'd simply keep doing as I've done for the past 30-35 years, antiquated as it may be. Most importantly, it works well and I can find any specimen in the card file within a few seconds.

[jhyatt]

Along with three colleagues, I'm conducting a moth faunal study on a specific site. We're keeping our master species list on an Excel spreadsheet. The columns are: Checklist number, genus/species name, specific localities where found, then 12 columns for the months of the year, with an "X" to indicate finding the species in question during that month. A final column is reserved for comments, like "new state record", etc.

While we're able to keep track of nearly 1,000 species using this approach, it's not perfect. It's hard to look at an entire row all at once (computer screen too small, and if I force it to fit, the font becomes unreadably small), hard to print, and a few other niggles. But it seems to be the best solution available.

For my personal collection, I keep species inventories (including name, sex, origin) as tables in Word documents. Works fine for me.

Cheers,
jh

[Paul K]

Nov 2, 2017 18:32:58 GMT Adam Cotton said:

If your data labels are prepared on an Excel file it effectively becomes a searchable catalogue.

Adam.

True, I didn’t think of it that way.

[Deleted]

Don't forget the good old fashioned way, keeping a diary of field notes that stays permanently with the collection, it worked for entomologists of old and it works for me,also in these days of digital photography its easy to keep all your pictures together in the same file with accompanying notes on each picture.

[trehopr1]

I think the importance of this Digitalization of a collection really depends upon whether you see your collection as a "research collection" or as a "hobby collection". I can see the importance if you have specialized in a group and your collection has become large and varied with subspecies of many things. If however, your collection is something you indulge yourself in (as time and money allows); than only a proper curation of the material is all you will ever really need.
I consider my collection a "hobby collection". I like Lepidoptera the most among insects however, I've never been singular minded so I have lots of other cool insects present and represented by at least 5 other orders. My 90 drawers hold about 5000 specimens and yet I know exactly where I can find something when I need to. My collection is well labeled and somewhat diverse but, well curated.
I like Dunc's above suggestion in his post; and I've heard of deliasfanatic's index card system being utilized by another collector with a big collection. Just keep in mind it will require a tremendous amount of personal time to digitize any collection of even fair size and you have to ask yourself: is this collection of mine really worth it?
In short, I'm just saying that a research collection (with it's depth) probably deserves such accordance; but, in a hobby collection it sounds like an awful lot of redundancy with few returns.