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stellerite

I have purchase white cardboard trays. The started out as flat cut out that you can easily fold into cardboard trays. These trays have no tops. 


the assembled cardboard tray

I next have sheets of cotton that I have bought from a local pharmacy.  I cut a small rectangle of cotton to put in the tray to help cushion the mineral specimen that will go there.  Sometimes I use the cotton, and sometimes I place the specimen in the tray with no cotton.

I then type out information to create a label (see picture below) to later place in the tray.  This starts out for me on an 8.5 x 11 inch sheet with many labels.  I use a word processing program for this.  I use Libre Writer (part of Libre Office), but many other word processors can do the job. 

I like to print on card stock rather than paper, as card stock will have more durability in the event that it is handled.  I also prefer a laser printer over ink jet, as the ink jet's ink is more like to be affected by water and humidity.  I've heard that many home laser can print card stock, that I'd have to check the manufacturers info and possibly adjust setting.  I felt better taking the files I made, convert them to PDFs, and brought them to a local print shop.  When I brought the cardstock sheets home, I trimmed them with a paper cutter (I used this to keep the cuts even).  Here is a final label sample:


the label

I am lucky enough to have a large wooden cabinet of drawers, and all the mineral specimens go into their cardboard trays and then into a drawer for safe keeping.

I keep three sets of three by five inch file cards to store all my information: Specimens, Minerals, and Localities.  I may one day soon try and convert all this over to Microsoft Access. We'll see.

The first set of cards, the specimens is probably most important.  It contains all the information that I have about the one corresponding mineral.  It has pre-printed descriptions where I can write in by hand details for catalog number, drawer location, name, variety, chemical formula, how acquired (collected, traded, bought, or gift), locality, collector, date acquired, date cataloged, cost, value, grouping, associates, and a larger section for notes.


this card holds all the information



back of information card

The second set has a card for each mineral species and then a list of corresponding specimen numbers.  This way asks me is I have a particular mineral, I can find it in a flash.


mineral species look up card

The third set has a card for each mineral locality sorted alphabetically by state and then town, etc.  Each card lists the corresponding specimen numbers.  This way if someone is touring a particular locality I can quickly show them material from the given area

locality look up card

After all this is done I am ready to store the mineral in the designated drawer.


the finished product !

Another thing that I do is take most of the general information off of the file cards and type them onto an Excel spreadsheet.  I've chosen this for now over a data base, because it can be read more easily on mobile devices or shared in other ways.

Expert Tip: No matter how you decide to organize your collection.  Keeping information details such as locality, where purchased, etc can add value to the specimen if it is passed on, sold, are traded.