[Nhcoll-l] NPS asking for info on your collections?
Carrie Eaton
carrie at geology.wisc.edu
Thu Nov 8 10:30:56 EST 2012
I'm sure this has probably been addressed by a few people already, but
our museum has been working rather closely with the Park Service on a
cataloging project for almost 3 years now. I had really thought that a
lot of this "big push" came as a result of the new 2009 Omnibus Public
Land Management Act, which includes the new Paleontological Resources
Act (hence the geology focus for us). Parks that lacked the appropriate
records for the permits they had on file were *strongly* encouraged to
track those specimens down and obtain those records. From what I've been
told by the NPS folks I work with, the parks had to identify larger
collections that needed updating or cataloging and hit those first. If
you have federal material and haven't been contacted it could be because
your objects are already very well cataloged, you do not have as many,
or you are just further down on their already very long list.
We were able to negotiate for a long term repository agreement that
gives us control over loaning and the determinations on destructive
sampling, but some of that may have been due to the fact that our
repository already had federal repository status and we have several
collections from a few other parks and monuments, as well as verts from
BLM land.
I agree that the indefinite loan or long term (25-30 year) repository
agreement is the way to go. It is my understanding that they are hoping
to get all of the NPS specimens on to agreements of this type and get
everything into their national catalog. I saw a great presentation a few
years back by Greg McDonald, the senior curator of natural history, on
the future partnerships between the NPS and collection managers at the
2010 Fossil Prep and Collections Symposium. A few colleagues and I are
hoping to also do a presentation or panel at next year's AMM meeting in
Madison, WI on this very topic. It could also be really beneficial to
have someone from the NPS (like Greg) come and speak at a future SPNHC
or AAM meeting to clarify the questions a lot of people have.
If anyone wants to contact me directly to ask about the details of our
project, or how we've managed our relationship with the NPS over the
past year or two - please feel free!
all the best,
Carrie
--
/*Carrie Eaton*/
/*Curator, UW Geology Museum*/
/1215 W. Dayton Street/
/Madison, WI 53706/
/(608) 262.4912/
*/carrie at geology.wisc.edu/*
On 11/7/2012 8:00 PM, Peter T Oboyski wrote:
> Having collected on National Parks myself, and responding (as
> collections manager) to queries from NPS regarding our insect
> collections, the NPS staff that I have spoken with seem content to
> have a list of specimens with our unique identifiers. They are
> considered to be on indefinite loan to our museum (no paperwork filed
> on my part), though still the property of NPS. I was able to dissuade
> them from insisting on NPS numbers on every specimen since they
> already have our unique identifiers. As usual, the individual staff
> are quite reasonable and understanding and can find ways to work
> within the bureaucracy of their institution. I agree that a
> "repository agreement" or "indefinite loan" is more in-line with
> accessioning language than "custodianship", but regardless of the name
> the authority of the museum holding the materials should be clearly
> spelled out in the agreement. That is, does the holding institution
> have the authority to (sub)loan specimens, grant dissections and DNA
> extraction, etc?
>
> I thought depositing of collected specimens was one of the questions
> on the NPS permit application. Why are they asking for a loan
> agreement? Or is this for legacy specimens collected before the
> current permit application process?
>
> Pete
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Peter T Oboyski, PhD
> Collections Manager & Senior Museum Scientist
> Essig Museum of Entomology
> 1170 Valley Life Science Building
> University of California, Berkeley
>
> mailing address:
> 1101 VLSB, #4780
> Berkeley, CA 94720
>
> http://nature.berkeley.edu/~poboyski/
> <http://nature.berkeley.edu/%7Epoboyski/>
> http://essig.berkeley.edu
>
> essig.museum at gmail.com <mailto:essig.museum at gmail.com>
> 510.643.0804 (work phone)
> 510.847.0360 (cell phone)
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Wed, Nov 7, 2012 at 5:09 PM, Bentley, Andrew Charles
> <abentley at ku.edu <mailto:abentley at ku.edu>> wrote:
>
> Ellen
>
> Why are they just contacting bird collections and not all
> collections from Federal lands -- fish, herps etc.? Or are they?
> I have not been contacted.
>
> We were however contacted some time ago and I know there was a lot
> of discussion at the time of entering into a "repository
> agreement" (I think this term is much better than custodianship as
> this is more accepted terminology in natural history collections)
> with NPS for all their material. The idea of renumbering or
> relabeling collections with NPS numbers as well as them making
> stipulations concerning the loaning of specimens to third parties
> was dropped after much backlash from the collections community. I
> just did a quick search for any emails regarding this but came up
> empty handed. I will keep looking to see if I can find anything.
>
> Andy
>
> A : A : A :
> }<(((_°>.,.,.,.}<(((_°>.,.,.,.}<)))_°>
> V V V
> Andy Bentley
> Ichthyology Collection Manager
> University of Kansas
> Biodiversity Institute
>
> Dyche Hall
> 1345 Jayhawk Boulevard
> Lawrence, KS, 66045-7561
> USA
>
> Tel: (785) 864-3863 <tel:%28785%29%20864-3863>
> Fax: (785) 864-5335 <tel:%28785%29%20864-5335>
> Email: abentley at ku.edu <mailto:abentley at ku.edu>
>
> http://ichthyology.biodiversity.ku.edu
> <http://ichthyology.biodiversity.ku.edu/>
>
> SPNHC President-Elect
>
> http://www.spnhc.org <http://www.spnhc.org/>
>
> : :
> A : A : A :
> }<(((_°>.,.,.,.}<(((_°>.,.,.,.}<)))_°>
> V V V
>
>
> From: Ellen Paul <ellen.paul at verizon.net
> <mailto:ellen.paul at verizon.net>>
> Date: Wednesday, November 7, 2012 4:04 PM
> To: "nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu <mailto:nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>"
> <nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu <mailto:nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>>
> Cc: Bulletin Board for Bird Collections and Curators
> <AVECOL-L at LISTSERV.LSU.EDU <mailto:AVECOL-L at LISTSERV.LSU.EDU>>
> Subject: [Nhcoll-l] NPS asking for info on your collections?
>
> Some bird collections have received communications from one of the
> national parks asking for verification of specimens in the
> collection that were collected in that national park and asking
> the museum to sign a loan agreement.
>
> Have any other collections received these communications? If so,
> from which parks?
>
> You may want to hold off on signing the loan agreements as we are
> continuing to pursue this alternate "custodianship" agreement and
> have been making real progress. If you sign the loan agreement,
> you will be precluding yourself from taking advantage of the
> custodianship agreement which is a much better option. At least
> until the loan agreement expires, or unless the NPS later agrees
> to terminate the loan agreement and replace it with the
> custodianship agreement.
>
> I am guessing that this effort is being made in response to the
> 2010 report of the Department of the Interior Inspector General
> that soundly condemned the NPS for having no idea where anything
> is. I'd give you a link but the DOI IG website is down while being
> migrated to another site so it isn't available at the moment.
> Obviously, it is a good thing that the NPS is taking measures to
> find out where things are, but it is worrisome that some of you
> are being asked to sign loan agreements without being told that
> there may soon be another option.
>
> Ellen
>
> --
> Ellen Paul
> Executive Director
> The Ornithological Council
> Email:ellen.paul at verizon.net <mailto:ellen.paul at verizon.net>
> Phone(301) 986 8568 <tel:%28301%29%20986%208568>
> "Providing Scientific Information about Birds"
> http://www.nmnh.si.edu/BIRDNET" <http://www.nmnh.si.edu/BIRDNET>
>
>
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