Last week was mostly spent databasing our tenth and eleventh cabinets and returning newly accessioned specimens to their proper homes. On Friday, however, our humble (but worthy) Herbarium reached a new stepping stone in the digitization process. Dr. Monfils and I had a video conference with Michael Giddens, who was kind enough to give us a detailed walkthrough of how to go about barcoding, photographing, and digitizing our specimens using our new SilverImage software. It seems like it will be a very efficient and easy process once we get in the swing of things. The high resolution photos that we have taken so far are looking gorgeous!
In layman's terms, we are giving each specimen in our Herbarium a sequential barcode (much like each specimen has an accession number); we photograph each specimen and then immediately scan its barcode. This barcode will then be associated with that image within the database. The photos begin as raw images and at the end of each day, we easily edit the pictures in bulk and then we "Batch out," converting the images to browser-friendly JPegs that can then be uploaded to online databases. For now, the online database will just have the image and the barcode of each specimen. Later, the high-resolution photos will allow us to add detailed information about each specimen to its entry within the database without having to actually pull the specimen from the cabinets.
I have just finished writing up the protocol for the process, and I will spend this week preparing specimens by double-checking organization and adding barcodes to the specimens in Cabinet 1. This Thursday, I will begin imaging in earnest. I am honored to be a part of pioneering this process, and I cannot wait to get started!
Again, my thanks go out to Michael Giddens, for his awesome tech support and his patient teaching as our Herbarium enters into this modern age. For a closer look at the equipment that we will be using for this process, see Mr. Giddens' website at SilverBiology: http://www.silverbiology.com/.
Until next week,
Abigail H.
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