Ahead of the curve: three approaches to mass digitisation of vials with a focus on label data capture

Abstract

There has been little research on novel approaches to digitising liquid-preserved natural history specimens stored in jars or vials. This paper discusses and analyses three different prototypes for high-throughput digitisation using cheap, readily available components. This paper has been written for other digitisation teams or curators who want to trial or improve upon these new digitisation approaches in liquid preserved collections.

Keywords

• natural history collections
• imaging
• vials
• jars