By Hugh MacIntosh, Natural History Data Steward
TA C K L I N G
THE BACKLOG Faster Cataloguing with Custom Software BEFORE:
A collection of shells in the invertebrate zoology backlog. While the specimens are in no immediate danger, this is not how we would like to store or organize them long term. Fortunately, the specimens have good associated data and can be processed in bulk.
T
he Royal BC Museum acquires tens of thousands of objects every year. Some are collected through the work of our curators, some are sent to us by external researchers and some are graciously donated by community members. All new acquisitions are appreciated, as they help tell the story of BC’s environment and history. Once at the museum they can be cared for and stored for future generations. But arriving at the museum is only the first step. Before they are ready to be stored or put on display, they need to be assigned a unique catalogue number, added to our electronic database, labelled and packaged. Small donations can often be processed quickly, but some acquisitions include hundreds or thousands of items—the result of a busy field season or the life’s work of a passionate collector. Even once they are accessioned (officially added to the collection), it may be some time before they are fully processed. This is the dirty secret of many museum collections: the backlog. Everything in the 28
AFTER:
Part of the same series of shells after cataloguing, labelling and careful packaging. These specimens are ready to be filed in their proper places on the collection shelves and will last for hundreds of years.
backlog eventually gets processed; it just The key is making them speak the takes time—sometimes years. But what same language. Think how you might happens when the museum needs to move organize a table of data about a butterfly to the new Collections and Research collection. You’ll probably have a column Building in a few years? That’s when the for the species name, one for where it was task of tackling our backlog becomes urgent. collected, one for the date, one for any notes Cataloguing specimens in our database you may have, and so on. But what you might is time-consuming work, and it’s often hard call “species name,” our database stores as to get a good flow going. Each item needs to “ScientificName.” After we do a little bit of be accurately described, and any associated formatting, checking for spelling mistakes information entered into one of hundreds or inconsistencies and moving data to the of possible data fields. If an object is linked properly named columns, our software is to others in the collection, these links also ready to work its magic. Just to be sure, we need to be described. Just entering this import the data into a separate test version information can quickly become a full-time of our database so we can check that everyjob on top of all the other things a collection thing worked properly. If there are no issues, manager needs to take care of. then we import it all to the real database. If we can process specimens in bulk, What would have taken weeks or months is we can accomplish the task in a fraction accomplished in a matter of minutes! of the time. Fortunately for us, many In the last two years, we have been able large donations now arrive with all their to process over 92,000 items using this bulk associated data in a digital format, like an import tool. With a move on the horizon, Excel spreadsheet. Some brilliant minds getting the backlog processed is suddenly on our Digital team have developed special looking a lot more manageable. software that can help turn these spreadsheets into records in our own database.
