9708979 Drewes Of over a quarter of a million herpetological specimens at the California Academy of Sciences, 97,861 specimens bear metal tags. The metal tags, upon which catalog number and/or locality data are embossed, were part of the standard curatorial procedure during the first half of this century as outlined by then-curator Joseph R. Slevin in 1927. Because of their large size relative to the size of the specimens, and their mass, the tags have caused physical damage to specimens, particularly small fragile ones. Over the years many of these tags have corroded, making the catalog numbers they bear illegible. This project will replace the metal tags with fiber catalog tags consistent with the rest of the collection, in order to mitigate and prevent further damage to specimens and loss of irretrievable data. NSF funds will provide dedicated technical assistance and new prenumbered fiber tags to replace all metal tags in the collection.
