Finding Specimens in Storage

You have a few options for finding a specimen that is in LDMS Storage :

• Open the Main View tab and just scan the label with a bar code reader (this only works if you have the specimen in front of you or reprinted its label).

• Browse the Storage Structure list

• Use the simple search feature, accessed by clicking the button below the Storage Structure list.

• Use the Search tab

Simple Search is used to locate a specimen with a specific Specimen ID, Global Specimen ID, or Other Specimen ID. You can limit your search to a specific storage location by using the Narrow Your Search fields. If you need more advanced searching, use the Search tab.

Figure: The storage search tab. On the search tab, you can also click the button from the LDMS toolbar to access the more familiar extended search feature.

To search, enter criteria to search, and then click the button from the LDMS toolbar. Specimens that meet all of your search criteria that are in storage will be displayed at the bottom of the screen. Specimens that are not in storage or do not meet all your search criteria will not be displayed. For example, in the above image, the user has specified the Group to be Frontier and they have also entered one or more items in the Global | Other | Specimen ID field. Even though there are many more specimens in storage that are in the Frontier group, only the ones that also match the specimen IDs specified will be displayed.

Searching by Specimen ID and Global Specimen ID can be confusing. Here are a few key points:

• The field Global | Other | Specimen ID accepts Specimen IDs, Other Specimen IDs, and Global Specimen IDs.

• The only Specimen IDs/Other Specimen IDs/Global Specimen IDs that will be shown will be the ones in the list below the Global | Other | Specimen ID field. They are added to this list by using the Add button or the <- button.

• Clicking the button will find all specimens in storage that meet the search criteria you've already entered and display them in the Specimen List box (this is identical to clicking the button) . You still need to select the specimens, and then click the <- button to move the specimen to the box to the right.

• Clicking the button will import a text file list of specimens to search. This text file must have one global specimen ID per line.