[Nhcoll-l] Molds collected on federal lands

[Shelton, Sally Y.]

Hi, Karen,
We have had a successful repository relationship with NPS and with a number of other Federal, tribal and state agencies for over thirty years. A lot of this can be worked out in the agreements you have with the agencies.

Most molding compounds are not, as you well know, permanent, but there should be a master cast that is used to create future molds in good detail and that is used for no other purpose, in order to preserve fine details as long as possible. We make this the first cast pulled from the best mold. The cast would be considered an NPS specimen, and numbered, tracked and documented as such. Molds in our holdings are not catalogued in ICMS, and NPS has never asked us to do so, because (1) they are short-lived, and (2) they are made by us with our materials, with NPS permission, under the terms of our agreements.  Our NPS partners would not consider cataloguing molds to be a reasonable or necessary request, for all the reasons you list. They are not collections items in and of themselves. We do track them so that we know which specimen/cast they represent, of course.

We have found that good working agreements and good communication mitigate most of these problems. When in doubt, we call our NPS partners and almost always get the go-ahead. Usually, when they ask for more information on what we are doing, it is because they endorse our activities and want to be able to report them in their end-of-year accounts, as good examples of the research and public outreach extended by repository partners working with NPS collections.


Sally Y. Shelton, Associate Director
Museum of Geology and Paleontology Research Laboratory
South Dakota School of Mines and Technology
501 E. St. Joseph
Rapid City, SD   57701
Sally.Shelton at sdsmt.edu
605.394.2487



From: nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu [mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Karen Morton
Sent: Monday, May 06, 2013 10:57 AM
To: NHCOLL-L (nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu)
Subject: [Nhcoll-l] Molds collected on federal lands

Dear List Members,

We are curious to know what kinds of protocols other museums are being required to follow regarding the collecting and cataloging of molds made in the field on federal lands.  In our case we are talking about molds of fossils, where the fossils are left in situ.  All fossils that are collected have, of course, been assigned NPS numbers by the appropriate park.  For years, however, we have been cataloging the molds as our own, as well as the casts that come out of them.  Our argument has been that the molds will eventually decay and become worthless, causing us to have to de-accession federal property.  What do you do with your molds and casts?

I look forward to hearing what everyone has to say on the matter.

Sincerely,

KAREN MORTON
Collections Manager
Perot Museum of Nature and Science
P 214.756.5722 | karen.morton at perotmuseum.org<mailto:karen.morton at perotmuseum.org>

2201 N. Field Street, Dallas, TX 75201
P 214.428.5555 | F 214.428.5892| perotmuseum.org<http://www.perotmuseum.org/>

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