DIGITIZATION OF A PALEONTOLOGY COLLECTION USING PASTPERFECT DATABASE MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

Museums house and maintain fossil specimens and records. The New London Public Museum (NLPM) located in central Wisconsin began through the donations of a local businessman in 1917 with minimal records. Since opening, the NLPM has safeguarded a collection with more than 800 fossil specimens. To ensure survivability and access to its collection the NLPM began a new digitization project. This project involved the implementation of the PastPerfect museum software for digital records as well as prepping and rehousing the specimens.

Specimens were prepared and imaged for reference and online display. Identification was determined to at least phylum using online resources. The paper records generally provided a county or town for locality information. The United States Geological Society county database was used to narrow down potential sources and ages of specimens. Assembled information and images were entered into PastPerfect and assigned an accession number. The number was painted on the specimen prior to rehousing in proper storage. 302 specimens were cataloged using this methodology.

This project brings the issue of failing to take good initial records and maintain good records to the forefront. It is the responsibility of museums to safeguard the information that our collections contain so that it can be used by researchers and the public in the future. Specimens often had a paper tag with a donor name and number associated with an entry in the ledger. Most entries lacked a useful identification. We hope that more museums take the NLPM’s approach and support efforts for digitization.