Jane raises a very good point (who can now read the old 4.5" floppies). Unfortunately, these paper trails are more difficult to share, especially with some of the handwriting I've seen. Our goal is to have a public portal to the whole collection. the PBS website is an excellent example of electronic sharing. I guess we have to do it all. Paul -- Paul Licht, Director University of California Botanical Garden 200 Centennial Drive Berkeley, CA 94720 (510)-643-8999http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu On Sun, Jan 26, 2014 at 11:24 AM, Jane McGary <janemcgary@earthlink.net>wrote: > Regarding provenance, I think it's useful to keep a paper record as > well as a database. Those of us who have been around a while > (remember FORTRAN? Or keypunching?) know that old digital information > can become inaccessible. Keeping the seed lists from which we ordered > seeds many years ago, with our handwritten notes on them, can be > helpful in tracing data that might otherwise be forgotten. For > instance, when I recently updated my database after moving to a new > home, I went back and added geographical origin to a number of > entries for which I had formerly included only the collectors and > years. The file of dusty old seed lists allowed me to do this. I also > print out my database once a year so I can put the hard copy on a > clipboard and check it against what's actually still alive, or check > identification and location. > > Now that my protected bulbs are in raised beds instead of pots, it's > a little easier to keep track of where they are, though I had a > numbered grid system for the pots too. On the other hand, in the beds > it is all too easy for the labels to get buried, and I can't read > them at a distance (I use embossed aluminum labels). I've started > putting the labels on groundcloth pins to avoid this problem, and am > using these where feasible in the garden too. > > Jane McGary > Portland, Oregon, USA > > > Paul Licht wrote > >Dylan highlights a very important and often unappreciated aspect of plant > >collections; namely, the origin of plants and associated data > (provenance). > > > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ >