This guide details the purpose of Collection Objects and Preparations in Specify and provides examples of how different collections use them to accommodate their own specimen management practices.
Collection Object
Table Description: A general term for anything that can be a part of your collection: a specimen, a specimen lot, a sound recording, a slide, a tissue, an extract, or a spectrogram.
What is the role of Collection Objects in Specify?
The Collection Object table typically records information related to the cataloging of a specimen, such as field numbers, alternate identifiers, and cataloged date.
The table is related to many other tables in Specify. This allows Collection Object records to be linked to details about collecting information, taxonomy, accessions, and more.
In scenarios where specimen relationships are complex, Collection Objects can also be grouped by Collection Object Groups or Collection Object Types. They can also be associated with Collection Object or Taxon records from other collections using Collection Relationships. Collection objects that with different parts that require multiple classifications (for example, a rock containing multiple different minerals) can also be broken down into Components.
What can be a Collection Object?
A Collection Object often represents the entire specimen that was collected, such as a fish, bird, plant, or rock.
Many collections also treat Collection Objects as a “lot,” or a number of specimens that share the same taxonomy and collecting information.
Preparation
Table Description: Preparation information describes the physical status of a specimen and its storage media. Specify provides an extensive array of utilities for curatorial management of specimen preparations.
The Preparation table has a dependent relationship with the Collection Object table, meaning a Preparation cannot exist without being associated with a Collection Object.
Preparations appear as a subview on the Collection Object form.
What is the role of Preparations in Specify?
The Preparation table records information about how a Collection Object has been prepared, including when and by whom it was prepared. Each Preparation must be linked to a Collection Object, and a Collection Object can have multiple Preparations. Preparations are used for creating interactions (loans, gifts, disposals, etc.) and can be linked to the Storage tree.
You may choose not to create Preparations for each Collection Object. If you do not use Specify to track interactions and do not use the Storage table to record storage information, it may not be necessary to create Preparations.
What can be a Preparation?
A preparation can represent an individual specimen in a lot, an entire prepared specimen such as a mounted bird, or different parts of a specimen prepared separately, such as a feather, wing, or tissue.
The Prep Type table indicates the type of specimen represented by each Preparation. Below are the default Prep Types for some of the disciplines in Specify.
Ichthyology: C&S, EtOH, skeleton, X-ray
Ornithology: Egg, Feather, Misc, Mounted, Nest, Skeleton, Skin
Botany: Boxed, Dried, Fluid, Sheet
[!Warning]
Unlike most pick lists, the Prep Type pick list must be edited using a specific workflow. To customize your Prep Type pick list, you must follow the instructions detailed in the article Edit Preparation Types.
Example Preparations
Institutions can manage Preparations differently depending on their workflows and storage accomodations. Below are examples of a few different ways to manage Preparations.
Example 1:
Collection Object description: Mammal skeleton
Preparation #1: Preparation Type is Skeleton. Count of 1.
Interaction management: 1 count is loaned or gifted away, leaving a count of 0 available in the collection.
Example 2:
Collection Object description: Lot of 50 fish in a jar
Preparation #1: Prep Type is EtOH. Count of 50, representing 50 individual fish.
Interactions: 3 fish are loaned or gifted away, leaving 47 fish available in the collection.
Example 3:
Collection Object description: Plant fossil
Preparation #1: Prep Type is Permineralization. Count of 1.
Preparation #2: Prep Type is Slide. Count of 2.
Interactions: 1 slide from Preparation #2 is loaned or gifted away, leaving 1 slide from Preparation #2 and all of Preparation #1 available in the collection.
Example 4:
Collection Object description: Singular fish tissue
Preparation #1: Prep Type is Tissue. Count of 100 (representing 100% of the tissue)
Interactions: 30% (count of 30) of the tissue in Preparation #1 is loaned out or gifted away, leaving 70% (count of 70) of the tissue available in the collection.
[!tip]
Not sure how to manage Collection Objects and Preparations in your collection? Start a discussion in the appropriate Discipline Hangouts subcategory for feedback from peers in your discipline, post in the Get Help category, or reach out to support.specifysoftware.org for guidance.Want to share how your collection manages Collection Objects and Preparations? Leave a comment under this post!