Lists in field books
Discussion: List Types
Note: In the first phase of the Smithsonian field book project, two discussion boards were created on the project wiki. The content below, explaining types of lists that have been found in field books, emerged from the second of those two discussions.
Types of Lists:
- Specimen list
- Catalog
- Determinations/determination list
- Identifications/identification list
- Catalog Number
Definitions:
- Catalog: Generally understood that catalog to be a list composed from field notes that are used as the ledger (the paper equivalent of the specimen database entry), or other types of organized lists for accessioning purposes. Also used very loosely to refer to random lists of specimens.
- Specimen list: Very ambiguous. Used only to refer to lists of specimens in field notes that are lists created in the field, but I think it can be used to describe any list of specimens.
- Determination list: Used to describe a list of names that have been determined after someone has had a chance to examine the specimens further. These typically are done back at the museum by the collector or his/her colleagues, but not assumed that is always the case. Also may sometimes say that a specimen list or field notes "include determinations" when someone has later identified and recorded the correct binomial next to an entry.
- Identification list: Infrequent. If used, probably because it was written on the item. Also used interchangeably with determination list, though preference is to use "determinations" when they fit the description of determinations above.
- The "catalog number” (USNM, U.S. National Museum number) is a specimen's number within the museum collection (i.e. in the database). In the museum database, this number is referred to as “catalog number.” Needed a standard way to refer to numbers used in museum database that refer to specimens (distinct from collector numbers) and settled on using “catalog number,” though may include term used by the field book in parentheses. Example: collector number 2-56, catalog numbers (NMNH, National Museum of Natural History, formerly the U.S. National Museum, numbers) 123456-123490.
