Bird Curatorial Manual | Curating Media

About MVZ Media

This section deals with curating media associated with bird specimens, egg/nest specimens, or bird observational records in Arctos. Media may include audio recordings or images, and images may show the specimen, bird observation, or habitat as well as related expedition photos (e.g., people, camp). The MVZ egg and nest collection was photographed as part of a National Science Foundation grant-funded project to increase access to that collection, along with digitization of audio recordings archived in the museum.

  • New egg and nest specimens are routinely photographed and linked to the records in Arctos as part of the curatorial workflow. Likewise, any original data slips received with egg and nest specimens are scanned and linked.
  • Egg Photography Protocol
  • Egg Data Scanning Protocol

Submission of audio recordings should follow MVZ protocols.

 

Peregrine Falcon eggs in the MVZ collection.

Storing Media at MVZ

Media should be stored on the MVZ local intranet server, with the location dependent on the media type. The Staff Curator will provide access to the correct directory on the server, or will copy them to the directory as needed if media are shared electronically (e.g., flash drive, Box, Google Drive).

  • Audio recordings – New audio recordings to catalog should be stored on the server’s OCIP drive in the directory Data —> New_Recordings_to_Catalog. Create a folder for each accession with recordings.
  • Bird specimen or field images (including observations) – Bird specimen or field images should be stored on the server’s CuratorialMedia drive in the directory Media —> MVZBird. Create a folder for each accession with images. If images are of specimens that have been cataloged into the collection (e.g., images taken by visitors or curatorial assistants), create a folder for each set of specimens that describes the content of the folder.
  • Egg or nest specimens – Images of egg or nest specimens should be stored on the server’s Curatorial drive in the directory Bird Curatorial —> Bird Eggs —> Egg Photos or Nest Photos, respectively. Place new photos in a “to upload” folder labeled with a description of the contents (e.g., “miscellaneous to upload” or “Accn14615_to_upload”). 
  • Egg or nest data slips – Scanned images of data slips associated with egg/nest specimens should be stored on the server’s Curatorial drive in the directory Bird Curatorial —> Bird Eggs —> Egg Data Scans —> slip scans. A different directory labeled “card scans” was used for scans of MVZ egg catalog cards, but should not be used for new data scans. Place new scans in a “to upload” folder labeled with a description of the contents (e.g., “miscellaneous to upload” or “Accn14615_to_upload”). 

Curating Media

There are three main steps involved in curating media and making them accessible for research, education, and public use:

  1. Cataloging media – Assigning a unique number to each media object.
  2. Uploading media to TACC – Making media accessible through a unique URL.
  3. Linking media in Arctos – Creating relationships between media and data in Arctos. 

Detailed procedures for each of these steps are described below.