7871

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 7871
• Author: Snyder, D. E.
• Title: Preserved Larval and Small-Fish Collections of the Upper Colorado River Basin
• USFW Year: 1996.
• USFW - Doc Type: Maintenance and Cataloging of a Valuable Historical Database - Final Report.
• Copyright Material: NO

Executive Summary

Most Recovery Implementation Program (RIP) participants recognize the importance
of their preserved Upper Colorado River Basin (UCRB) collections as voucher for program
investigations and as long-term sources of additional biological and historical information.
The Larval Fish Laboratory (LFL) at Colorado State University serves as a repository for
many of the preserved fish eggs, larvae, small juveniles, and small adults collected by RIP
agencies. LFL holdings now include over 58,000 UCRB taxon-specific lots and an
estimated 2.8 million specimens, some collected as early as 1976.
The objectives of this 3-year (1992-1994), $60,000 project were to provide for the
proper care and management, improved accessibility, and permanency of UCRB larval and
small fish collections held by LFL. Those objectives have been achieved for nearly half the
UCRB collections, except collection permanency which continues to be pursued outside the
scope of this project. Accomplishments include: (1) licensing and implementing a version
of the NSF-sponsored MUSE (museum) computer catalog and collection management
system; (2) cataloging, upgrading (containers and preservative as necessary), and
reorganizing 24,840 lots of UCRB collections (1.2 million specimens); (3) establishing
procedures and policies for collection management and use; (4) arranging for on-line
computer access to catalog data; and (5) estimating time and costs for completing the task
of cataloging and handling backlog collections.
This project has successfully cataloged, upgraded, and reorganized nearly half (43%)
of the UCRB collections currently held by LFL on behalf of RIP participants. However,
approximately 33,360 lots collected since 1976 remain uncataloged backlog. Time and
labor and materials costs for fmishing the task are estimated at 1.9 man-years and $65,960.
Additional shelving will also be required to accommodate yet-to-be-processed 1994, 1995,
and future collections. F or deposited collections processed by LFL, most 1994 and 1995
and all future collections have been or will be cataloged as part of collection processing.
We recommend that RIP support upgraded care and cataloging for the remaining backlog of
VCRB collections, expansion of collection shelving, and on-going curation of preserved fish
collections.

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