Data Transcription Procedures

Introduction

This section contains information on the practices for transcribing specimen data from specimens into a Microsoft Excel worksheet using the data entry template (File:Data Entry Template 20-Feb-2007.xls).

Procedures

Sort Specimens

Sort the specimens by collecting event (Locality, Date, Collecting Method, Collectors) for a taxon (scientific group). Do not mix up the taxa (scientific groups). If the specimen labels appear to be entirely heterogeneous, this step may be skipped.

Barcode Specimens

Apply the unique identifier (barcode) to the bottom of the specimen careful to avoid the encoded barcode area of the media. Some pins will have a blunted tip making it difficult to penetrate the barcode media. In this case, use a loose pin with a sharp tip to carefully pierce but not fully penetrate the media. The slight piercing of the barcode media will avoid potential "spinning" of the label in the future.

If you come upon a misprinted barcode whether it be the encoded part being smudged or a digit being unreadable, do not use! The barcode is used to uniquely identify the specimen unambiguously. If the barcode number is not correct, the reference in the database for that specimen will not be correct, thus causing a number of serious problems if not rectified quickly. Copying the correct barcode number is extremely important!