Documenting Your Collections
Info-Muse Network Documentation Guide

Les guides électroniques de la SMQ

Collector (Collection)

Field to be used with an authority listField used for natural science collectionsSociété des musées québécois Info-Muse database field

Definition:

  • This field contains the collector's name.

Observation:

  • N.B.: Do not confuse the Collector field with the Identifier and Source fields. The Collector field contains the name of the person who found, collected, sampled or captured the specimen. The Identifier field contains the name of the person who identified the specimen. The Source field contains the name of the person who owned the specimen before it was acquired by your institution. It is possible, but not mandatory, for these fields to contain the same name.

Entry rules:

  1. Enter the family name, followed by a comma, a space and the first name.
    Example

    CollectorSicotte, Marie-Paule
  2. Initials should be followed by periods.
    Example

    Collector MacTavish, Lionel G.
  3. Periods and commas should be followed by a space, unless they are followed by other punctuation.
    Example

    Collector Tran Vinh, M.D.; Dovinski, Igor
  4. If an individual has an honorific title, enter his or her family name, comma, space, first name, comma, space and the title.
    Example

    Collector Potvin, Joseph, Father
  5. If you wish to enter two names for the same person, first enter the name by which he or she is best known, following the rules above, and add the other name in parentheses without inverting it.
    Example 1

    Collector Dupuis, Juliette (Juliette Carrier)
    Example 2

    Collector Saint-Stanislas, Sister, a.s.v. (Gabrielle Beaulieu)
  6. Enter the full name of any organization or company, without inverting it and respecting the usual spelling.
    Example

    Collector Stones Unlimited
  7. When a specimen was collected by a group of people, enter the names in alphabetical order, separating them by a semicolon followed by a space. If you choose not to enter the names in alphabetical order, justify your decision in the Cataloguer Remarks field.
    Example

    A common wood sorrel plant was harvested on June 23, 1992 by Gustave McMurray, Project Director, and Betty Lee, his assistant.

      Disciplinebotany
      GenusOxalis
      Species montana
      Collecting Methodharvested
    Collector McMurray, Gustave; Lee, Betty
      Date Collected 1992-06-23
      Cataloguer Remarks Gustave McMurray is the project director and Betty Lee is his assistant.

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