John T. LonginoDepartment of BiologyThe University of Utah

Keep the cash flowing: specimens as currency

The Goal:

To have the most objects before you die

To learn about the world by examining objects

To acquire disparate kinds of data from objects and keep them linked

The Good Old Days:

Pros: science got done

Cons: I had to capture data; no easy way to attach data to individual specimens; writing lots of little determination labels

The Good Old Days:

The Problems:Need for unique identifiers

JTL

INBio

sp3 JTLMCZ 2007

ident deposited det by det date

sp1 JTLJTL 2001

MCZ sp4 SCMCZ 2009

AntWeb BOLD

The Problems:

Conflation of unique identifiers and ownership labels

The Problems:Separation of research and artifact preservation functions in big museums

Mound, L. A. 2012. The Natural History Museum re-visited. Antenna 36:195-200."Caring for the physical well-being of collections is ... increasingly an end in itself, and commonly determines its own priorities. Moreover, these priorities quickly become separated from priorities for the creation of ideas and knowledge for which collections have been amassed."

The Solutions:

Treat unique identifiers like insect pins

The Solutions:Use existing specimen identifiers

Insuring uniqueness?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globally_unique_identifier

MUEUI: Unique in the Entomological Universe Identifier

Institution blind unique identifiers?

The Solutions:Use the specimen identifiers

The Solutions:

Outsource data capture to borrowers

http://www.si.edu/Collections

http://entomology.si.edu

Are insects a special case?

http://www.gadling.com/2010/03/26/airlines-losing-3000-bags-every-hour-of-every-day

I would rather excel in the knowledge of what is excellent, than in the extent of my power and possessions.