Mass-imaging of microscopic and other slides

Microscope slides form part of natural history collections in herbarium, museums and other collecting holding institutes. They are unusual compared to other preservation types as they are rarely curated as separate collections but stored as supplementary collections alongside a range of “classical” collection categories including entomological (both as whole slide mounts and preparations of parts like genitalia), botany, zoology, palaeontology and mineralogy. The preservation methods, labelling practices, dimensions and storage are very variable. It is probably due to these properties that there has been limited mass-imaging methodologies published and considered for slides as a discrete collection.