New Labels for Herpetology & Mammalogy

[markscherz]

We would like to initiate design of labels for alcohol specimens in the herpetology collections. Following the procedure of #210 , I have taken the liberty of drafting examples.

1) Full name .....In Taxon window .....In italics .....Larger font size than other field texts .....Normal format: Genus species subspecies (Qualifier) .....(Qualifier) and subspecies only if they exist .....Species with only Genus should be given as Genus sp. .....Query: can we add Subgenus to Specify tree? 2) Type status .....In collection Object Window .....In AllCaps 3) Author .....In Taxon window .....Include exactly as given in Author field .....Normal format: Author, year [with or without parentheses, verbatim] .....If >3 authors, truncate to Author et al. year if possible 4) Locality name .....Field is called ‘Locality name’ in Locality window 5) Geography .....Field is called ‘Geography’ in Locality window 6) Latitude .....From Locality window. .....Use parsed decimal degrees. 7) Longitude .....From Locality window. .....Use parsed decimal degrees. 8) Elevation .....From Locality window .....use Elevation and unit (generally m) 9) Collecting Date .....From Collecting Information window 10) Expedition .....From Collecting Information window 11) Collectors .....From Collectors window .....Format for each collector: First name [Middle initial] Last Name .....Collectors separated by commas. Last two collectors separated with '&' .....List all collectors. 12) Determiner .....In Determinations window 13) Determined Date .....In Determinations window 14) Alt Cat Number .....In Collection Object window

Potential suggested layout

Examples:

Cheers, Mark

[markscherz]

One small point to add to this label design: a solution a single label for a series of specimens is needed. But I guess this is partly done by hand?

[FedorSteeman]

I've started designing, but noticed that catalog number is left out. Surely you'd want that on the labels as well???

[FedorSteeman]

Did a few more edits and got a preliminary design. The labels are already available, and here's a sample: HP MM Label 1 test 1.pdf

Please note that there are several things still off, most notably text formatting, because we're having issues with font installations on the server. Hopefully this will be mitigated when we migrate to the new servers and upgraded Specify7.

To get the labels you need the following query:

[markscherz]

Fantastic. We do not need to have the NHMD numbers shown on the labels at all. We do not use them, because we cannot attach them to the physical specimens. They are only internal database numbers. The ZMUC numbers perfectly suffice.

What would be useful to add instead would be field number information, where it is present. This would probably need to go into the main label area, ideally directly above the line above Jrn. number.

There is also an error: where it says 'Leg.' it should say 'Det.'; Leg. means 'collected by', and could be what we use above instead of 'Coll.'. This is my mistake from my early draft above—sorry about that.

[FedorSteeman]

See attached pdf as well as below screenshot; These were generated on the new test server, where we got fonts and stuff to work. I think we're pretty close now. 😄

HP MM Labels 1 sample1.pdf

P.S.: Noticed that author name is in Italics still, but I'll fix that.

[FedorSteeman]

Got date parsing to work too now: HP MM Label 1 Sample 2.pdf

[markscherz]

This is awesome progress, @FedorSteeman. Minor adjustments:

• You can remove the NHMD number; it is really not very useful, and I think it will be confusing for users of the specimens (we expect them to cite specimens based on their ZMUC tags, not the NHMD numbers).
• Is it possible to get it to only ever report decimal degrees (dd.dddd° NS ddd.dddd°EW) instead of dms (dd°mm'ss" NS dd°mm'ss" EW)?
• what happens if there are more than one line of collectors?

Can this work from a Container query, as well as a Coll Obj query? I have tried it out and it looks generally okay, but I cannot find a way to get it to give a single line when the different objects are from different days, for example.

[FedorSteeman]

Thank you @markscherz ! I can't wait for the finalization of the migration and upgrade so we can have all these neat features.

Some further comments:

• I am sorry, but you are not going to get away with leaving out the NHMD numbers. It has already been decided a very long time ago that these are the new official catalogue numbers for the entire museum and are to replace the various older numbering systems, which should be regarded as secondary at best. You can contact Nikolaj Scharff and @kimstp for further clarification if needed.
• Geo coordinate formatting can be a bit funky in Specify, but I'll see what I can do.
• Any overflow in any of the fields will be truncated on whole word level. I will try some different options in JasperSoft, like perhaps it's possible to decrease the font size in case of overflow. Alternatively we could scale up the labels to have more space.
• In the Specify query builder it's possible to prevent duplicate rows by using aggregate and formatted options, but I'll need to look at your specific query to help you out there. I will try and experiment myself a bit.

[markscherz]

• The NHMD numbers are not physically attached to the specimen, whereas the ZMUC numbers are. The NHMD numbers across multiple specimens in a single jar are frequently discontinuous, whereas the ZMUC numbers are almost always continuous. And all active researchers working on vertebrates housed at the NHMD use ZMUC numbers, not the NHMD numbers, because again, ZMUC numbers are attached to the animals, but NHMD numbers exist only digitally. For us, the NHMD numbers serve a purpose to ensure each specimen has a unique identifier in the database, but beyond that, they are not used. Until we have the ability to print the numbers onto tags one at a time in the instant that we need them (impossible), we are going to be continuing to use 'alt cat numbers' as the main collection reference numbers. This is true across the vertebrate collections (though I heard birds may be deviating). I am happy to have those conversations with @kimstp and Nikolaj, in the context of our practical use of the collections now and into the future :)
• Yes it is a good idea to develop a few different label sizes, for jars with more complex data, or those containing many individuals.
• Okay, we will have to try to find time to look over the container query.