UC & Jepson Herbaria

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Specimens are accepted into the collection and assigned a collection number ("UC" plus number for the UC collection or "JEPS" plus number for the Jepson collection).  The specimen is usually dried, pressed, and mounted on a specimen sheet, but it can also be preserved in liquid, stored in a bag, etc. Specimens can come from collecting activity, the botanical garden, or other sources.

Accessions

I.                   Single specimen that consists of a single object (e.g. mounted on a single sheet).  This is the most common situation.  A collector or collecting group collects a specimen during a collecting event.  The specimen is then accessioned into the collection whereby it can be used in a project or sent out on a loan.  The following kinds of data can be applied to a specimen:

a.       collecting event: Specimens are collected during collecting events.  Through this collecting event, one can establish the collection location (geography/locality), collection dates, collection agents, and collection method.

b.      agent: An agent is a single entity that can perform an action on the specimen.  The entity can be a person, a group of people, or an institution/organization.  In addition, agents can have multiple roles such as collector, annotator/determiner, author, loan requestor, institutional owner.

c.       annotation/determination:  Specimens can be identified multiple times, but there must be one and only one accepted determination.  A history of annotations must be maintained.

d.      usage: Specimens can be cited in a publication, used in a project, loaned out to another institution, or sampled for DNA analysis.

e.      Voucher (specimen characteristics):   Voucher data are bits of information related to specimen characteristics.  It can be culled from the specimen itself, as well as any notes or observations (physical or not).

                                                              i.     Examples of voucher types: type, habitat, color, phenology, reproductive biology, nomenclature, odor, cytology, anatomy, other label numbers (i.e. other identifiers assigned to the specimen by institutions or persons such as USDA number or garden number).

                                                            ii.     Examples of voucher data sources: specimen, labels, notes, annotations, publications, drawings.

f.       Other specimen/object characteristics (not voucher):  Some informational bits about the specimen or object are not stored as vouchers.  Examples include:

                                                              i.     object type  (e.g. specimen, exsiccata,)

                                                            ii.     original collector number

                                                           iii.     preservation/storage type/method (e.g. dried and mounted on specimen sheet, preserved in liquid)

II.                 Single specimen that consists of multiple objects (e.g. mounted on multiple sheets).  Specimens that consist of multiple objects require special handling  for data related to loans (tracking) and possibly vouchers (observations specific to one sheet).  In the example of a specimen with multiple sheets, each sheet would be a single object of an object type "Sheet" that makes up the object type "Specimen". Data specific to object type "Sheet" can include dimensions, material type, mounter (person who mounted the specimen onto the sheet).

III.               Multiple specimens bound together in a volume (e.g. exsiccatae).  An exsiccata volume or fascicle consists of multiple specimens.  It can be considered another object type.  For example, the object type "Exsiccata" is made up of multiple objects of type "Specimen" which can consist of multiple objects of type "Sheet".  As with Case II, these objects require special handling for data related to loans and loan tracking.  In addition, data concerning the object type must be maintained.  For example, exsiccata name/title, collectors, volume, pages.

IV.               Multiple specimens mounted on a single sheet.   As in Case II, sheets that consist of multiple specimens require special handling for data related to loans (tracking) .  A loan request for one specimen should also tag all specimens on that sheet as part of the loan.  This example highlights the need for object tracking. One or many specimens are mounted on a sheet which is filed in a folder which is ordered in a cabinet.