Digitisation / Cataloguing of non-textual objects: Development of standards for the photographic documentation of permanent microscope slide mounts in precarious mounting media

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For light microscopy, small organisms and their determination-relevant organs and structures are frequently mounted in water soluble media (e. g. glycerine jelly, chloralhydrate- and gum arabic-based mounting media, polyvinyllactophenole). The advantage of these media is that a preceding dehydration of the objects is not necessary and that the organisms generally maintain their natural body shape. An important disadvantage of these media is the limited durability of the slide mounts prepared with them.For collections (incl. type material) this can be problematic, since re-mounting might in some cases damage the object and is often not realizable due to the high time requirement involved.An almost complete photographic documentation of such objects will contribute to a permanent preservation of most of the object information. The resulting photos can be made publically available via the internet making loans obsolete und thus minimizing the danger of losing valuable collection material.The project aims at developing standards for the most possibly complete light microscopic documentation of slide mounts. Thereby a broad range of light microscopic methods (e. g. phase contrast, differential interference contrast, confocal microscopy) will be tested in order to determine the optimal combination of methods for the respective group of objects and organisms. Since most objects are three-dimensional, a photographic record in the form of focus stacks is intended. Via the database SeSam the photos will be made availabe via an internet platform for a large community of users. In order to improve the internet searchability of digital images of this object class, a broad discussion of their metadata concurrent with the production of photo sets will be initiated.Located at the Senckenberg Museum of Natural History Görlitz a diverse and important collection(including type material for approx. 400 species) of important taxa of soil mesofauna (Nematoda, Tardigrada, Acari, Plathelminthes, Collembola, Protura) exists, which is curated by a permanent staff of specialists. Many objects of this collection are slide mounts. The concentration of relevant material and the necessary expertise in Görlitz creates an ideal situation to develop and improve the standardization of digitizing microscopic three-dimensional objects. Starting from this core, the project aims will be published and cooperations with other institutes solicited in order to include similarly preserved objects (e. g. from other zoological and botanical collections).