Loans made by other institutions to IU faculty, staff, and students are to be handled by the curators of the Repository to ensure that records of where the material belongs are maintained. Once the loan is accepted, the conditions of loan (e.g., use, storage, exhibition, duplication, destructive sampling) set by the lending institutions will be adhered to by IU. Loans may not be transferred to another institution or person without prior written approval from the lending institution. All loan documentation becomes part of the permanent record.
The Repository will not knowingly accept material on loan that was collected or imported illegally, or that might place the University in a compromising legal or ethical position.
Specimens that are damaged or lost while on loan to the Repository must be documented and the lending institution notified immediately.
Methods of accessing specimens or data from the Collection include 1) physical access to the specimens; 2) loan of specimens; or 3) verbal or written compilations of associated data.
Unconditional access to and use of specimens is not feasible, therefore, the guidelines listed in the following sections will be followed.
Access to the collection is restricted to the curators, authorized faculty and students, and visitors with supervision. Authorized faculty and students are those who need to use the collections for teaching and research. Visitors wishing to use the collection must request an appointment in advance and be approved by the curators. Visits will be granted as the curators' schedules permit. Visitors must be supervised by the curators, authorized faculty, or students at all times. The following criteria will be used to grant access to the collection:
Visitors who have abused their status or damaged specimens may be denied access. Keys are not issued to non-University personnel, except in rare cases and only with permission from the curators.
Non-academic requests (private collectors, hobbyists, clubs, commercial users, artists, etc.) will be reviewed individually. Such non-academic access (tours behind the scenes) will be closely supervised by the curators, authorized faculty, or students. Research and photographic equipment, and preparation materials will be made available whenever possible.
Access to the Collection’s archives and specimen data is open to the public with written permission of the curators, with occasional restriction on documents containing information on site-specific location of rare, threatened, and endangered species, significant historic, archaeological, and paleontological sites if the disclosure of such information would jeopardize the integrity of continued existence of the resource. See Section D for restrictions on commercial use.
No fees are charged for in-house use of materials, for loaned materials, or for internet-based information that is used by researchers or the public for non-profit scientific or educational purposes.
Requests for commercial use will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Fees may be charged for commercial projects if deemed appropriate.
Request for loans should be made in writing (including e-mail) and should include the purpose of the loan and a description of material requested. Loans must have a scholarly or educational purpose. Loans are made to institutions and sent to the borrower (a permanent employee of the institution) as the person responsible for the loan. Students may examine specimens; however, loans on behalf of students will be made to the student's academic supervisor.
Loans are subject to the following guidelines (exceptions must be requested and granted in writing).
1. The borrower must sign and return the loan form accompanying the specimens as an acknowledgment that the specimens were received in good condition (exceptions noted).
2. The borrower is responsible for the safety of loaned material. Specimens should be stored according to professional standards in specimen cases that are free from hazards (fire, theft, water damage, etc.; recommendations will accompany specimens with special needs).
3. All material sent on loan must be returned by the specified date (or extension). Loans may be extended upon request from the borrower. Type specimens are loaned for six months, non-types for one year. More restricted loans (1 month or less) are issued when the material is needed by in-house faculty or students.
4. Specimens may not be forwarded to another institution or individual without prior written approval of the curators.
5. Specimens may not be prepared, destructively sampled, or altered in any way without prior written approval of the curators. Special requests for destructive testing must be fully justified and submitted in writing for approval by the curators. Requests to alter primary type specimens (holotypes, lectotypes, neotypes) are discouraged and evaluation of such requests will be considered more conservatively than for non-type specimens.
6. If permission is granted for further preparation or destructive sampling, the specimens must be well documented (photographed and, in some cases, cast or scanned) before preparation. All preparations, fragments, casts, photographs, and scans made prior to preparation must be returned.
7. All original documents accompanying the specimens must remain with the specimens and should not be defaced. Indicate nomenclatural changes and relevant observations on a "comment card" accompanying the specimens (sign and date the comment card and place it with the specimen).
8. Specimens are the responsibility of the borrower until returned to the Repository. Therefore, loans should be packed carefully and shipped in the same (or better) manner as received. Type specimens must be returned by registered mail (or another method that tracks delivery).
9. The borrower must agree to cover the cost of return shipping and insurance (if deemed necessary).
10. The Indiana University and the Department of Geological Sciences must receive credit in any publications based upon the use of specimens from the collection. The acronym "IU" should be used as a prefix to the catalogue number.
11. The borrower must request new catalogue numbers for use with previously uncatalogued material or for specimens that need to be distinguished from a lot. The curators will assign appropriate catalogue designations.
12. Authors shall send a reprint, which may be in PDF format, of any publications based in whole or in part upon material loaned from the Repository. Normally we expect that copies of casts, digital photographs, scans, or other data directly derived from the specimens be deposited with the Repository for inclusion in our internet database of associated data; exceptions will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
13. Failure to follow Repository guidelines may jeopardize future borrowing privileges.
The fossil specimens in the Repository were collected primarily for research and education; a secondary purpose is for exhibition. Many taxonomic groups or features can be studied only after the specimen has been prepared (e.g., thin sectioned, stained, coated, acidized, etc.). Type specimens and pristine display specimens should not be sampled if other suitable material exists. This sampling policy is flexible, and sampling will be permitted when the potential for gaining scientific knowledge outweighs the sacrifice of the specimen.
Modification of type specimens requires definitive, written justification and must be specifically pre-approved by the curators (see Section E, Point 5 above and the paragraph below). All requests for destructive sampling must be made in advance in writing describing the proposed method of analysis and agreeing to allow the data to become a permanent part of the specimen documentation (i.e., published data are public; unpublished data must be supplied after some agreed upon time period, perhaps 3-5 years).
The Repository has never engaged in the practice of commercial sale of specimen reproductions. If such an opportunity should arise, reproduction shall not compromise the University's image nor its ethical responsibility to preserve scientific specimens and to hold these specimens in trust for the public.
Loaned specimens that are damaged or lost while under the care of the Repository must immediately be documented in writing and the lending institution must be notified. Specimens belonging to the Repository that are damaged or lost at IU or while on loan must also be documented in writing and brought to the attention of the curators.
Management of the IU Paleontology Collection will be appointed by the Chair of the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and will normally consist of one or more of the tenured or tenure-track faculty in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences whose research is focused on paleontology, paleobiology, or geobiology.
The current (January, 2024) Collection Manager is Dr. Claudia Johnson.
