[Nhcoll-l] NPS asking for info on your collections?

[Bentley, Andrew Charles]

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

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 Andy Bentley
 Ichthyology Collection Manager
 University of Kansas
Biodiversity Institute
 Dyche Hall
 1345 Jayhawk Boulevard
 Lawrence, KS, 66045-7561
 USA

Tel: (785) 864-3863
Fax: (785) 864-5335
 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/>

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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

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Ellen Paul
Executive Director
The Ornithological Council
Email: ellen.paul at verizon.net<mailto:ellen.paul at verizon.net>
Phone (301) 986 8568
"Providing Scientific Information about Birds"
http://www.nmnh.si.edu/BIRDNET"<http://www.nmnh.si.edu/BIRDNET>
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