[Rockhounds] labeling

Wed Mar 24 21:53:42 PDT 2021

I used to be the field trip/equipment coordinator for a local rock club in
the Houston Area. One day I was contacted by the family of Dr. Cloyd Wray,
Head of the geology department at San Jacinto Community College. He had
passed away and they wanted me to dispose of his lifetime collection. I
agreed to pick it up, sort/catalogue it and auction it off. They agreed. It
took three full pickup loads to haul it all onto my back patio, the only
covered space large enough to hold it all. I was told that many family
members had already showed up and hauled off many of the best rocks for
their own rock gardens. The best fossils, many of which were world class and
framed in large wall mounts, also remained with the family. I estimate there
was over 12,000 pounds of rocks. When the family started to assemble it all
for removal the first thing that happened was that almost every container
that held rocks fell apart. The collection had been housed in mineral flats
and cardboard boxes and stored for many years in an un-air conditioned
garage. Houston's famous humidity had done its work. They literally shoveled
the collection into any containers they could find that would hold the
rocks, from 5 G buckets to old rusty tool boxes and luggage. Many specimens
had ID numbers on them but when they found the catalogue for the collection,
a thick handful of loose leaf papers, it crumbled to dust and the
information on all the specimens was lost. I spent the next six months,
almost every weekend and many week nights, sitting out on my patio, sorting
through all the rocks he had collected. It was like reliving someone's life.
I had great respect for his rocks and treated them with all the love and
care they deserved. I save just about every type of container that comes my
way for possible re-use and I had hundreds and hundreds of small bottles,
plastic tubs w/lids, et cetera at my disposal, and lots of old bankers boxes
and book boxes. By the time I was done my supply of containers was
completely exhausted. Dr. Wray had been just about everywhere and collected
just about everything. Each month I loaded as much as I could into the back
of my old SUV and took it to a club meeting for an auction. After nearly a
year the last of it was auctioned off. Many of the rocks were identifiable
by sight - amethyst, selenite, pyrite - but where they came from remains a
mystery to this day. Don't let this happen to your collection. Software has
a technological life of about 8 years before it becomes obsolete. The best
way to preserve your collection for future generations is to keep it away
from humidity and to do a regular backup and paper printout of your catalog,
preferably with photos, so that every specimen can be positively matched up
with its provenance information, even if it doesn't have a label or ID
number. I have disposed of all the equipment in a home lapidary shop after
the owner has passed away many, many times. The family usually just wants to
give the old equipment away and there is usually little if any lapidary
material. But Dr. Cloyd Wray is the only rock/mineral/fossil collector for
which I have had the privilege of disposing their collection.

-----Original Message-----
From: Rockhounds [mailto:rockhounds-bounces at rockhounds.drizzle.com] On
Behalf Of Paul van den Bergen
Sent: Wednesday, March 24, 2021 11:05 PM
To: Rockhounds at drizzle.com: A mailing list for rock and gem collectors
Subject: Re: [Rockhounds] labeling

that should read "looong since been unsupported or updated..."

On Thu, 25 Mar 2021 at 15:03, Paul van den Bergen <
paul.vandenbergen at gmail.com> wrote:

> I see this sort of thing a lot in IT.
>
> Systems that do a good job of the thing they are used for but have 
> looooong since been supported or updated.
>
> This is not a good situation to be in.  It suggests that the source 
> data isn't in an adequate state to support being ingested into ANY 
> management or display (collectively 'presentation layer" tools) and 
> hence has a critical point of failure, just waiting to happen...
>
> It's not that 'modern' systems are better - sometimes they are, 
> sometimes they aren't, often because requirements change or security 
> requires features be dropped (aka every computer device management 
> portal I've encountered in the last 30 years, excluding command lines.
Who, me?
> bitter?  unnecessary job security!)
>
> Change delayed is a risk ignored.
>
>
>
> On Thu, 25 Mar 2021 at 13:32, Alan Goldstein <deepskyspy at outlook.com>
> wrote:
>
>> I use Filemaker Pro at work for the park collections - geology, 
>> Native American artifacts, & historical artifacts. I have been using 
>> it for 25 years. Still works great. The state threatened to stop 
>> supporting the program, but someone in IOT changed their minds 
>> because it is used in other data-collection reports through the state
park system.
>>
>> For my own collection, it's cataloged, but I am not consistent 
>> keeping with labels with specimens. I do save labels of specimens 
>> from the source when purchased or traded. I have put the disposition 
>> of my collection in my will - in case something happens to me before 
>> I donate portions to several museums and sell other specimens. With a 
>> little luck, that will be in 20 years or so - or when I decide to 
>> downsize my house. I need to scan the pages that predate having a 
>> computer when I used that old antique called a typewriter!
>>
>> Two relevant stories:
>> > Working with Steve Garza's collection has reinforced the importance 
>> > of
>> curating your collection because if you don't do it, it will become a 
>> disaster. Those historical specimens I've found of Steve's often have 
>> a label glued to the specimen. I've become adept with recognizing 
>> specimens from the same locations after going through tens of thousands
of specimens.
>> Plenty of mysteries though...
>> > In 1977, working with the Gerard Troost collection (ca. 1810-49)
>> motivated me to start cataloging my personal collection. Now, with 
>> about 5K minerals & 5K fossils, I would never have time or be able to 
>> motivate myself to start! It is fun to revisit specimens I collected 
>> or traded 40 to
>> 50 years ago, but these days it's to photograph them and occasionally 
>> replace a number that fell off.
>>
>> Alan G.
>>
>> ________________________________
>> From: Rockhounds <rockhounds-bounces at rockhounds.drizzle.com> on 
>> behalf of Murowchick, James <murowchickj at umkc.edu>
>> Sent: Monday, March 22, 2021 1:07 PM
>> To: Rockhounds at drizzle.com: A mailing list for rock and gem 
>> collectors < rockhounds at rockhounds.drizzle.com>
>> Subject: Re: [Rockhounds] labeling
>>
>> I use FileMaker Pro (originally made by Apple, but later split off as 
>> a separate company) for both my curating databases, and for making 
>> labels for my personal collection, the university's Sutton Museum of 
>> Geosciences, and the department's teaching collections.  I found FMP 
>> much easier to learn than Access, and I can have work-study students 
>> enter info in Excel (they all know how to use that), and then it is a 
>> simple matter to import the Excel file into FMP. We are considering 
>> using it to make a web-accessible virtual museum compilation of the
specimens on display.
>>         The advantage of a true relational database like FMP or 
>> Access is the ability to find related data, filter with complex 
>> terms, and present the data in many formats (specimen labels, a 
>> catalog with photos, locations, size, etc.) and can contain photographs
and even recordings.
>> Much of that can also be done in Excel, but databases make it much 
>> simpler once the format has been configured.  With one click, I can 
>> make labels or see ALL the information I have on a specimen.  Any 
>> database takes a lot of work to get established, but it can be relatively
simple to keep up-to-date.
>>         There are some great ideas in this thread--thanks!
>> Jim
>> James B Murowchick, Ph.D.
>> Professor Emeritus
>> Geochemistry & Mineralogy
>> UMKC Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences
>> 420 Flarsheim Hall
>> 5110 Rockhill Road
>> Kansas City, MO 64110
>> murowchickj at umkc.edu
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Rockhounds mailing list
>> Subscription Services:
>> https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Frockh
>> ounds.drizzle.com%2Fmailman%2Flistinfo%2Frockhounds_rockhounds.drizzl
>> e.com&data=04%7C01%7C%7C842ae38aa6524558caba08d8ed553af1%7C84df9e
>> 7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637520297614603461%7CUnknown%7CT
>> WFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVC
>> I6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=sXZR1CMMxn%2BbrUmFLFpdGxU%2BtYZU5OBpMCbD07q
>> MDnY%3D&reserved=0
>> List Usage Policy:
>> https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Ftomas
>> zewski.net%2FKreigh%2FRockhounds%2FRockhounds.shtml&data=04%7C01%
>> 7C%7C842ae38aa6524558caba08d8ed553af1%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaa
>> aaa%7C1%7C0%7C637520297614603461%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4w
>> LjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sda
>> ta=CqO2Or5q9yjGu1iNRmEnjzpNfParkK2sFB3XJsVb7PM%3D&reserved=0
>> _______________________________________________
>> Rockhounds mailing list
>> Subscription Services:
>> http://rockhounds.drizzle.com/mailman/listinfo/rockhounds_rockhounds.
>> drizzle.com
>> List Usage Policy:
>> http://Tomaszewski.net/Kreigh/Rockhounds/Rockhounds.shtml
>>
>
>
> --
> Dr Paul van den Bergen
>
>

--
Dr Paul van den Bergen
_______________________________________________
Rockhounds mailing list
Subscription Services:
http://rockhounds.drizzle.com/mailman/listinfo/rockhounds_rockhounds.drizzle
.com
List Usage Policy: http://Tomaszewski.net/Kreigh/Rockhounds/Rockhounds.shtml