Catalog Record/Data Entry Documentation

How To Enter Catalog Record Data in the Field

This guide will walk you through the procedure of setting up a spreadsheet to enter specimens while in the field. Be sure you are familiar with Arctos and how to enter specimens BEFORE attempting to do this in the field.

Before going into the field, you need to prepare a bulkload spreadsheet for bulkloading catalog records. Fill in all the information you need other than what is collected in the field. This will save on time.

The following is what should be filled out before going into the field. (in order of top to bottom, not left to right).

• COLLECTION_OBJECT_ID 1 up to the maximum you expect to collect.
• DATUM World Geodetic System 1984
• ENTEREDBY “your name”
• GEOREFERENCE_SOURCE global positioning system (transcription)
• OTHER_ID_NUM_TYPE_5 A gps id if you have one
• MAX_ERROR_DISTANCE Usually ~10 m, here just put 10
• ACCN The accession number it will be in.
• MAX_ERROR_UNITS m
• NATURE_OF_ID field
• GEOREFERENCE_PROTOCOL not recorded
• ID_MADE_BY_AGENT agent’s name of primary expert on trip
• EVENT_ASSIGNED_BY_AGENT agent’s name of primary expert on trip
• MADE_DATE Date of trip.
• EVENT_ASSIGNED_DATE Date of trip.
• VERBATIM_DATE Date of trip.
• VERIFICATIONSTATUS Unverified
• BEGAN_DATE Date of trip.
• COLLECTOR_AGENT_1 agent’s name of primary expert on trip
• ENDED_DATE Date the itemde was prepped.
• COLLECTOR_ROLE_1 collector
• HIGHER_GEOG Location of trapping.
• GUID_PREFIX Museum followed by collection, e.g., NMU:Mamm
• LATDEG N (Assuming you know the location.)
• PART_NAME_1, PART_NAME_2, etc… List the usual parts taken, (h, k, lu, spl; liver; skeleteon) Change if needed.
• LONGDEG W (Assuming you known the location.)
• PART_CONDITION_1, etc… Almost always will be “good”. Change if needed.
• PART_LOT_COUNT_1, etc… 1
• ATTRIBUTE_DETERMINER _1, etc… agent’s name of primary expert on trip
• PART_DISPOSITION_1, etc… In collection
• ATTRIBUTE_UNITS_1, etc… Use units that go with that attribute
• ATTRIBUTE_1, etc… List the usual: sex, weight, total length, etc…
• SPECIMEN_EVENT_TYPE accepted place of collection
• ATTRIBUTE_DATE_1, etc… Date of prep
• OTHER_ID_REFERENCES_1 self

Excel trick: You can quickly fill in multiple cells with the same info without highlighting and dragging multiple times. Only highlight and drag once and then the rest of the cells can be automatically filled in by double clicking the small square at the bottom right hand side of the cell. Be careful with numbers: If you want all 1’s you might end up with 1, 2, 3… To fix this, fill in two cells with 1 then highlight both of them and double click the box in the bottom right hand corner.

Save often to avoid losing progress.

Double check the data before entering it into Arctos.

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