Loan Policy - Benthic Specimen Collection
The NBI Benthic Specimen Collection was donated to the NC Museum of Natural Sciences in May 2019 and is no longer maintained by NOAA. To request additional information, please see contact information found on the Contact Us page.
After a loan request has been submitted in writing to the National Benthic Specimen
Collection (NBSC), hereafter referred as the Collection, the following conditions
and practices apply to the recipients thereof:
- Upon receipt of loaned specimens to borrowers, please sign and promptly return one
copy of the loan invoice enclosed with specimens. By doing so, the borrower acknowledges
responsibility for the loaned items. For each subsequent communication concerning
loaned specimens, please refer the unique loan number located on the invoice and
send all future communication to the Collection Manager.
- Loans of sorted lot specimens are made for the stipulated time period of six months,
unless previous arrangements have been made with the collection manager of the Collection.
All loaned specimens are expected to be returned by the due date. Any loan extension
request should be made in writing at a minimum of 30 days before the loan due date.
The Collection reserves the right to recall any of its material at any time.
- Loans are made to institutions, but individuals requesting the loans are ultimately
responsible for all material of the loan. As such, loan items should not be removed
from the premises nor transferred to third parties.
- Requests for loan extensions and permission to transfer specimens from one institution
to another must be made in writing in advance of the loan expiration or specimen
transfer.
- Loans for research are made only to established researchers. Requests from students
for loan of specimens must be countersigned by their research supervisor. The research
supervisor is ultimately responsible for care and return of loan materials
- Loan materials must be stored and handled according to professionally accepted standards.
Specific information (i.e., alcohol type and concentration of fluid specimens) will
be noted on the loan invoice.
- Destructive sampling of voucher specimens is prohibited. Destructive sampling of
any specimen requires permission in advance from the Collection Manager. Dissections
should be made in a manner that causes the least amount of damage to the specimen,
and parts dissected out correctly preserved and associated with the rest of the
specimen. Specimens destroyed for genetic analysis will be considered "gifts", but
sequence data should be returned to the collection in some form (publication, raw
data, etc.).
- Any proposed change to the name printed on the specimen label should be indicated
on a separate label and maintained with the specimen, or in a separate list that
contains the catalog numbers and respective new name designations (either text or
spreadsheet format).
- It would be beneficial to the Collection to know the extent of examination of the
specimen by the borrower. Please indicate this on a separate spreadsheet and return
with collection material or submit electronically to the collection manager.
- All labels must be kept with the associated specimens at all times and returned
with the specimens.
- The acronym “NBI” should be used when referring to specimens from the Collection.
The borrower should send to the Collection Manager, two reprints of each paper resulting
from the study of the borrowed material
- Additional special conditions may apply on an individual basis. Any special conditions
will be clearly noted on the loan invoice and fully considered a condition(s) of
the loan policy.
- By accepting loan materials from the Collection, the requestor implicitly consents
to the loan policy.
Failure to adhere to these conditions will result in the loss of borrowing privileges
for the loan recipient. Failure to return material lent to an institution will result
in the loss of borrowing privileges for that institution.