[Nhcoll-l] Catalogue number requests - paleontology

[Jessica Amber Miller-Camp]

Agreed with the others, for a couple additional reasons.
I don’t know what it’s like for invertebrate paleontology, but many journals where vertebrate paleontologists publish are increasingly requiring specimens to be deposited at an institution, lest they be unpublishable (an attempt to curb the black market trade). If they aren’t actually properly catalogued by museum personnel until years down the road (potentially until after the researcher’s death), then they aren’t meeting the spirit of that requirement even if they were promised to the institution and given numbers.
When it’s a case of regulations requiring deposition in the specimen’s home region, giving the researcher numbers while the specimens are away leads to things like other researchers seeing the publication and flying to the other side of the world to see things, only to find out that they overshot the specimen’s actual location by a quarter of the world. Because if they haven’t been catalogued, then they probably also haven’t had loan forms filled out and the collections manager won’t realize what’s happened until the researcher says it’s not in the drawers with other like specimens. And no, I’m not speaking hypothetically.
It’s a choice between inconveniencing that researcher once, or giving multiple researchers and museum personnel headaches down the line. Follow Spock’s advice on this one.

Cheers,

Jess Miller-Camp, Ph.D.
Museum Scientist
Department of Earth Sciences
University of California, Riverside
JessMC at ucr.edu
(951) 827-3440

From: DjanChekar, Nathalie [mailto:nathaliedjanchekar at therooms.ca]
Sent: Friday, April 28, 2017 8:06 AM
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: [Nhcoll-l] Catalogue number requests - paleontology

Good day,

I would like to know how other institutions handle a researcher’s request for catalogue numbers for the purpose of  publication when the request comes prior to the specimens physically entering the museum.

As a rule, we don’t issue catalogue numbers until an incoming lot has arrived on the premises and can be assessed and fully accessioned. This is sometimes difficult to apply, particularly in paleontology. Regularly, paleontologists require catalogue numbers for publication, but need to hang on to their material for ongoing research. Permits and regulations often dictate that specimens be deposited in the region where they were collected. Sending the material back and forth, when the researchers live away, can be costly and presents risks and delay. However, issuing catalogue numbers prior to the specimens’ arrival creates an external backlog that is challenging to manage. I’m curious to hear about the experience of others with this issue.

I thank you and look forward to your comments and feedback.

Nathalie

Nathalie Djan-Chékar  -  Natural History Collections Manager
(709) 757-8082 (W) | nathaliedjanchekar at therooms.ca<mailto:nathaliedjanchekar at therooms.ca>

Provincial Museum Division
The Rooms Corporation of Newfoundland and Labrador

________________________________
“This email and any attached files are intended for the sole use of the primary and copied addressee(s) and may contain privileged and/or confidential information. Any distribution, use or copying by any means of this information is strictly prohibited. If you received this email in error, please delete it immediately and notify the sender.”
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/nhcoll-l/attachments/20170428/5fdcb990/attachment.html