[NHCOLL-L:243] Re: Accessioning and DNA sample query

[amsnyder at unm.edu]

Andrew,

I am glad you brought up this confusion re: tissues as loans or gifts.
Ron Eng stated it well in his last paragraph.  I would like to second this
idea that tissues are always loaned.

A gift has "no strings attached" in the sense that loans do.  Loans of
tissues, although they are not returned, still should require the
usual "acknowledgement of the museum and 2 copies of the reprints
citing these specimens."  

Although most tissues come to our museum as gifts, I always regard them as
loans.  It makes more sense to me.

My final 2 cents:   the catalog number should always remain the same
for the series regardless of the deposition or transformation of the
specimens.  Once you start introducing subnumbers, prefixes, etc. you have
introduced confusion.  Catalog numbers and accession numbers(alphanumeric) 
are perfect as they are for the computer database; both work quite well on
their own for relational data files:  the accession number "groups" the
specimens collected under a specific project; open accession numbers work
for long term ecological data sets; and catalog numbers relate to where
the specimens are and their deposition (eg. 5 in the skeletal collection,
3 in the C&S holdings, 10 in the ethanol collection and 1 radiograph).

All the best,

Lex Snyder

=============================================================================
		Alexandra M. Snyder,  Collection Manager
		Division of Fishes   Museum of Southwestern Biology (MSB)
		University of New Mexico   Albuquerque NM 87131 USA
		PH 505.277.6005 FAX 505.277.0304 EMAIL amsnyder at unm.edu
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