Week 5: The Digitization Project

This was a very eventful week at the CMC Herbarium! The digitizing equipment is all assembled together and only a few adjustments are needed so it is ready to go!

Therefore, Anna had to go through a series of online meetings to learn how to operate and adjust the equipment. There are many steps that have to be followed in order to digitize specimens, so all of this seems very challenging to me. However, I am positive that after we get some practice the work is going to flow well, and honestly I can't wait to database our collection!

 Anna participating in a online meeting about the digitizing equipment.

 Taking trial pictures of specimens

 Testing the equipment

Barcodes like this one will be added to our specimens after they are digitized.

To learn more about the digitizing equipment used in our Herbarium, please visit the "Silver Biology Group" website: http://www.silverbiology.com/

However, finishing setting up the digitizing equipment was not the only thing we had to worry about this week. There are a few more things we had (and still have) to accomplish at the CMC Herbarium and we call it the "CMC Digitization Project": 1) Figure out how to organize the collection, 2) Check what materials we have in each cabinet to allow organization; 3) Double check family and species names of the specimens we currently have to check if any updates are needed; 4) Produce and attach annotation labels on specimens if needed.

I will comment on each topic in order,  

1. Right now, the specimen organization is based on the organization of Edward G. Voss’ Michigan Flora.  His system is based off of a natural system proposed by Adolf Engler in Die Natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien (The natural plant families), edited with Karl A. E. Prantl, 1887-1915. This system is commonly used is most large American herbaria. Using the Engler System, herbarium specimens are arranged by Family and then in alphabetical order by Genus and further by specific epithet.

If you want to know more about the advantages and disadvantages of both Systematic and Alphabetical arrangements of Herbaria, check our website below and click on "Filing in an Herbarium": http://cmcherbarium.bio.cmich.edu/collection_curation.html


2. At the Herbarium, we have cabinets that are used to store our collection and also research and classes collections. This week, I went through the research cabinets and took notes of what’s in them as well as pointed out which shelves were empty or underused (see pictured below). This process will give us an idea of how much free space we have in the Herbarium so we can better organize it.

Organization sheet 

 The idea is to go through the collection cabinets and do the same.

3. Do you remember that during weeks 2 and 3 I was cataloging the specimens we had in our collection cabinets? In 2 weeks I was able to list in a Excel spreadsheet all the specimens stored in our first 3 cabinets. This week, I had to double check the name of all families and species on Tropicos ( www.tropicos.org) so we can annotate the labels on our specimens.

4. I completed the process above for our 1^st cabinet to have an idea of how long it takes me to do it. It takes me about 30-40 min to double check all the families and species we have in a cabinet but it is a very important process. We need to know the most recent names to the current families and species we have so we can generate a trustable database. Therefore, my next step was to make the annotation labels (yes, I know VERY exciting!!) for all the specimens that need one. Below is the annotation label template I created! I am very excited because my name will be on them, YAY!

Annotation labels

Wow, there was lot of work  to do this week but it is so worth it! Next week, the “Digitization Project” continues and will keep you updated on the news!!

Have a great day,

Emilie