<div dir="ltr">My museum is looking to change its policies in light of changes coming down the pipe from NSF. As I understand things, currently NSF funded projects require a "data management plan" which is variously implemented by investigators, but part of which is a requirement to deposit their specimens and data somewhere that can be publicly accessed. Coming down the pipe (I hear in the next year) are more rigorous requirements for the deposition of the specimens (must be a curated collection) and they will allow/require (not clear on this part) lines of funding to be included that will offset the costs of curating all of these new collections. <div><br></div><div>Right now, like most places, we charge nothing for acquisitions, but we're also pretty much out of space, there are those in the university who do not see our value and thus our budget has plummeted, and yet we're trying to push forward to acquire more space and or a new building. Our director got excited about these new changes coming down the pipe so that we can charge to help us offset the costs of curating, but he's wanting to push this point NOW with researchers here on campus. I fear that doing so will just encourage them to deposit their specimens in other museums and not ours because it'll cost them nothing to do so.</div><div><br></div><div>So I'm wondering if anybody out there is already charging and if so, how much, and how many museums are doing this or preparing to do this?</div><div><br></div><div>Thanks for any thoughts you have,</div><div><br></div><div>Kirsten <br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature"><font face="'times new roman', serif" style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)" color="#006600">Kirsten E. Nicholson, <span class="" id=":1ez.2" tabindex="-1">Ph</span>.D<br><br><i><font size="1">Assoc. Prof. Biology and Curator of Natural History<br>Dept. of Biology Museum of Cultural and Natural History<br>217 Brooks Hall 103 Rowe Hall<br>Central Michigan Univ. Central Michigan University <br>Mt. Pleasant, MI 48859 Mt. Pleasant, MI 48859<br>989-774-3758 989-774-3829</font></i></font><i><font size="1"><span style="background-color:rgb(0,0,0)"><font color="#336666" face="'times new roman', serif"><b><br></b></font><br></span><br></font></i><br><br><br><br><br><br></div>
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