This page is intended for MVZ staff, faculty, students, and associated researchers. The Museum is not a general repository for wildlife images, but rather seeks to catalog images that are associated with Museum research.

MVZ researchers are increasingly relying on digital images as part of fieldwork and for documenting species occurrences. These images may be of animals, habitats, landscapes, or people/camps. As such, they add value to specimens,observations, and collecting events. Historically, MVZ images were cataloged in a separate Image catalog and are identified by an "Img" number in the database. Changes in the nature of image material being acquired require a change in workflow practices with regard to acquisition of images. The following guidelines are intended to help researchers and MVZ curatorial staff process images as they are acquired by the Museum.

General Philosophy:

Images add value to observations and collecting events, and thus should be treated with the same high standards as any other material. Images without associated metadata do not have the same value as images with metadata. Images that are associated with collecting events should be accessioned with other material from the same event(s), to ensure that they are associated with that accession.

Guidelines for Donors:

(if you are already familiar with these guidelines you may click here to shortcut to the quick guide)

It is the responsibility of the photographer to sort and label images prior to donating them to the MVZ. The photographer should only donate images that add unique value to an observation or collecting event. Thus, if multiple images are taken of the same site or subject, the photographer should choose the most informative or highest quality image(s) for donation.

The photographer must complete the metadata spreadsheet (in Excel) for images prior to donation. Please note that only YELLOW columns are required. WHITE columns are optional fields for species information and other notes. GREY fields should be left blank for curatorial staff to complete. Download the Photo Data Entry Template at the bottom of this page.

• Yellow columns: must be entered by photographer
• White columns: to be completed if applicable
• Gray columns: to be entered by curatorial staff

When you are filling out a new metadata spreadsheet, please be sure to visit this page and download the most recent verison of the template. Periodic updates will be made to incorporate changes in the Arctos database.

Journal pages are provided to aid MVZ researchers and students with recording photo data in the field. Blank pages and examples of how to use them may be downloaded at the bottom of this page. You may also pick up pre-printed worksheets and examples (on archival paper sized for MVZ field notebooks) from a curator.

MVZ researchers and students should deposit the images and metadata onto the public folder Media Drop on Gromit (\\gromit.mvz.berkeley.edu\MediaDrop), and then notify the appropriate Staff Curator. Non-MVZ researchers should contact the appropriate Staff Curator to make arrangements for transferring images and metadata.

• Carla Cicero - Birds
• Carol Spencer - Amphibians and Reptiles
• Chris Conroy - Mammals

Once images have been processed by a curator they will be stored in a permanent, redundant archive off-site. Photos and other media may be searched for in the Arctos media search and there will be linked with specimens, localities, projects, and more.

Ready to submit photos? About to go into the field? Check out the quick guide for photogaphers.

Files for download:

Download (XLS) | Photo Data Entry Template, Date: 19 August 2009. Instructions are included in the excel spreadsheet or may be viewed online.

Download (XLS) | Field notebook page for recording image data in the field. Sized to print on MVZ field notebook paper (6 3/8" X 8 3/4").

Download (PDF) | Two part example illustrates how data may be recorded on field notebook pages (part 1) and shows some data being transfered from the field journal into the photo data entry template (part 2). Small enough to print on field notebook pages, but may be printed on any sized paper.