Retrieve herbarium specimens from physical storage

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1. Retrieve group of herbarium specimens from physical storage. If necessary, obtain permission to access physical storage from responsible department or unit. 
   
   
2. Ensure that retrieved specimens are placed in secure temporary storage for the duration of the digitization process.

Physically prepare herbarium specimens

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Note: Digitization of herbarium specimens usually requires the camera operator to consider conservation issues. Conservation treatment may be required to achieve desired results. In such cases, the specimen should be imaged before and after treatment. 

1. Find a clean flat surface where the specimens can be handled.
   
   
2. Assess the batch of herbarium specimens and determine whether there are specimens that may disrupt the digitization workflow. Disruptive specimens include specimens that are:
   
   
   1. Mounted on non-standard size card stock (requires adjustment of camera mount, focus, etc.)
      
      
   2. Brittle and/or flaking off the card stock (requires consideration of conservation issues and file naming conventions)
      
      
3. Determine if any specimens should be treated and imaged post-treatment, or if the condition should simply be annotated in the metadata.

Review and annotate existing metadata

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1. Check existing nomenclature with The Plant List (http://www.theplantlist.org/) or AlgaeBase (http://www.algaebase.org/) as appropriate. 
   
   
2. Annotate metadata. Refer to the DalSpace metadata guidelines for herbarium specimens for guidance.

Next step - create digital "master files" of herbarium specimens

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See the procedures for creating digital "master files" of herbarium specimens.