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

[Peter T Oboyski]

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://essig.berkeley.edu

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>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
> Fax: (785) 864-5335
>  Email: abentley at ku.edu  ****
>
> http://ichthyology.biodiversity.ku.edu****
>
>
>
> SPNHC President-Elect****
>
> http://www.spnhc.org****
>
>
>
>                            :                 :
>     A  :             A  :             A  :
>  }<(((_°>.,.,.,.}<(((_°>.,.,.,.}<)))_°>
>     V                V                V
>
>   From: Ellen Paul <ellen.paul at verizon.net>
> Date: Wednesday, November 7, 2012 4:04 PM
> To: "nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu" <nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>
> Cc: Bulletin Board for Bird Collections and Curators <
> 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
> 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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