Navigating the Storage Tree
Each column shows a nested level associated with how we store our material. Each building is broken up by room, then by aisle and so on.
The numbers in parenthesis indicate the number of specimens tied directly to it, as well as the number of specimens total for that entry. For example, Aisle 1 Left of the type room has 0 direct specimens (ie, no specimens just lying in the aisle- as one would hope!) but has 8344 Collection Objects held in the various cabinets, drawers and boxes in that aisle.
Looking at the Cabinet/Shelf, we see that there are 0 specimens lying loose in Cabinet 407, but 428 specimens are held in the various drawers.
The individual drawers are the lowest tier. Drawer numbers are not unique overall- that is, you can have more than one Drawer 0014, but within each cabinet there can be one one drawer assigned a number. If you see 2 'Drawer 0014' entries, that means one of those entries has a leading or trailing space, or some other variable that keeps the names from being exactly the same.
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Things to know:
Adding Drawers to the Storage Tree
Maps of NPL buildings at PRC
Basic 'Tree' navigation
By selecting a drawer and right clicking, you can see the options available for interacting with the database via that drawer.
Move Columns left collapses all but the tier you are working with, so only that column is seen in the tree.
Find next finds the next node with the same name (Drawer 14 in Cabinet 466)
View opens the full record. This allows you to see TAGR numbers, images or notes tied to this drawer.
Associated Collection Objects opens a data tab with each of the CO records for specimens in the drawer.
Common Questions
Why do some cabinets have drawers that are a mash up of low and high numbers? Are the both correct? Should I 'fix' the entry?
Do not edit the storage tree unless:
- you are Cissy Geigerman
- have the curators approval!
- NPL has migrated from a system where drawers were numbered per cabinet, starting with 1 at the upper left hand side, and counting up until all drawers had a number. Switching to Specify, with the storage tree system, we quickly saw some issues with this method. For example, imagine you are entering a new CO for Drawer 2. There are nearly 100 drawer 2's in the main building and over 300 over in the cages. This creates a hassle when having to scroll through so many entries!
- In a perfect world, whoever updated the drawer number would have edited the old drawer number in the storage tree to reflect this change. In the real world, this happened most of the time. The other times, the new drawer was added to the tree.
- As of spring of 2016, the procedure is to merge the drawers (or edit the records, if there are only a couple of specimens) and keep the repeating (low) number. ONLY staff members should perform this action, or approve student or volunteers editing the tree.
- There is a project in the works to reassign all of the repeating drawer numbers, but this will not happen until ALL of the specimens are moved from the old databases to Specify.
