Here's what the Collection Object form looks like as of April 2016. Keep in mind, Specify is a 'living' database, and there are always upgrades and tweaks being made. All efforts will be made to keep this page up to date.
One of the first things to realize about this form, it's bit of a Frankensteins monster of a database form- parts taken from other tables, strings tied together from a variety of origins and so on. This section is meant to clarify some of this, and give a user enough information that they can understand what into to put where, and why. Because of this narrow focus, we're able to skip some of the things that the Quick Guide covers well enough.
Review the primer on relational databases to see how all these sub-forms relate to other tables and 'tie in' to the Collection Object form.
Basic Format
Catalog numbers at NPL are unique. Specify will not let you save 2 Collection Object records with the same catalog number. The format is pretty simple, and the catalog number field on the data entry form won't let you save an incorrectly formatted number.
Simply put, the catalog format is 3 alphanumeric digits, 8 numeric digits, then 3 alphanumeric digits again.
Over the decades, NPL has acquired a variety of collections. Many of these have their own catalogs, and for the most part, we have been able to keep those original numbers. This is why you see so many collection acronyms. WSA, P, UT, TX, BEG, OMB are just a few examples.
Rarely, historic numbers must be reassigned to make them work with the Specify number format. This seems to happen mostly with TX numbers, which used a format of 4 numbers, TX, then a suffix. Sometimes the suffix would exceed 3 digits, especially in cases where a letter was added to show different specimens on the same slab. Cases like this are the ONLY example where we are reassigning catalog numbers. In the past, many Plummer type specimens were reassigned BEG numbers and this is still causing issues 60 years later.
For information on how NPL assigns new numbers, cordons off numbers for incoming collections and handles catalog number conflicts head over to the Catalog Number detailed info page.
You will often see other numbers written on either the specimen or label, or both. These numbers need to be entered here, separated by a comma. If you can identify the catalog, put that in there also. This is especially important when a Plummer number has been crossed out and reassigned a BEG number (an act that was very popular in the mid 1900's), also as smaller catalogs get brought under the NPL catalog system, keeping the original catalog acronym and number provides an important record should we ever need to backtrack.
Accession records in Specify help us track important legal and provenance information- the Accession Number is the index number for that record. These numbers are formatted to show the year the material was accessioned, and the order in which it came.The Accession Number field in the Collection Object form lets NPL 'tie' the Accession record to the Collection Object, so it's important to have the correct number in this field.
If you have an Accession Number, you can type the year, then tab and select the correct sequential number. The Collection field is auto completed based on the information tied to the Accession Number, and will not display until the record is saved, closed and reopened.
Commonly used Accession Numbers:
Things to know: