Cataloguing

The step that converts material into a collection, and the one that silently does not happen.

The gate before the shelf

The rule that makes a collection survive: nothing gets shelved until it has a number, and nothing gets a number without a catalog row.

Applied strictly, the backlog cannot form. Relaxed once, it forms immediately, because uncatalogd material on a shelf looks exactly like catalogd material.

The sequence

Assign the next number. Sequential, never reused.

Write the row: species, locality at every level, source, dates, size, price paid, identification basis, any treatment, provenance.

Mark the specimen with the number, on a reversible barrier patch, somewhere unobtrusive.

Print the label and put it in the box with the specimen.

Photograph it, with a scale, and put the filename in the row.

Then it can be shelved.

Doing it in batches

Catalog a session's material in one sitting rather than piece by piece over weeks.

Set up once: numbers, labels, the barrier coat, the camera, the catalog open.

Twenty specimens in an evening is a reasonable rate and it is far faster than twenty separate five-minute attempts.

Why it slips

Because it is the least enjoyable step and the specimen is already yours.

Because a show produces more material in a day than a month of evenings can process.

And because nothing visibly breaks when it is skipped. The cost arrives years later, as a drawer of good material nobody can describe.

The practical defense is to catalog before buying more, which is the same rule as the backlog page and is unpopular for the same reason.

References