LSU Museum of Natural Science

Section of Ornithology

Specimen loans

1. For scientific research. The LSUMNS will ship specimens to researchers in the USA or Canada under the following conditions:

a. Remsen receives a formal request on letterhead stationery (pdfs or hard copy) explaining briefly why the specimens are needed, who will be responsible for their care, how they will be cared for, and which specimens are needed. Please be as specific as possible with respect to taxa, localities, dates, ages, and sex.

b. The request is counter-signed by the museum curator who will be responsible for the loan (unless the requester and the curator are the same).

c. The requester agrees to acknowledge the LSUMS in publications that use the specimens and to be responsible for sending the LSUMNS a reprint of such publications.

Loans are normally for a period of 1 year. Requests for extensions of this period should be secured before that year is over. We do not send specimens to private individuals or institutions that lack proper facilities for housing specimens. Because loans are so costly in terms of processing time, shipping expenses, and insurance, we may ask for reimbursement of these costs if the researcher is not directly associated with an active museum. Because we process as many as 100 loans per year, we are usually 1-2 months behind, and so please be patient. Unfortunately, we are extremely reluctant to send specimens to countries other than Canada because of the difficulty in safe passage through customs.

2. For scientific illustration: Same as above, except that we require the illustrator to sign an agreement in advance that includes a guarantee that the LSUMNS will receive a gratis copy of the book or article in which the illustrations appear.

3. For commercial or personal artwork: We do NOT loan specimens for these purposes. However, we are more than willing to let artists use certain specimens if they arrange to visit the collection and to use them on-site.

Information requests

The LSUMNS is willing to send information to researchers on label data from specimens and occasionally measurements, provided that the request is not excessive (i.e., not more than an hour or two of work). As with loans, we must receive a formal request on letterhead stationery explaining briefly why the data are needed, and how they will be used. An email message is not sufficient for the formal request. Please be as specific as possible with respect to taxa, localities, dates, ages, sex, etc. Students must have this request counter-signed by their advisor. Because we process as many as 100 information requests per year, we are usually 1-2 months behind, and so please be patient.

Information requests that seek to acquire blocks of original specimen data that will be repackaged into other databases will not be granted except in very special circumstances.

Visiting the research collection

Those interested in visiting the collection to obtain research data are welcome to do so provided that we know the visitor’s schedule in advance of arrival. Before visitors are allowed to use the collection, they will be briefed on our rules and policies; therefore, arrangements have to be made with either Remsen or Cardiff for this briefing before the collection can be used (i.e., do not expect our office staff or students to just let you into the collection). Qualified researchers are usually given a key that permits 24/7 access.

Dr. J. V. Remsen, Curator of Birds

Steven W. Cardiff, Collections Manager

Museum of Natural Science, Foster Hall 119, LSU

Baton Rouge, LA 70803