Accession records are comprised of not only the database record for the accession, but also paperwork that needs to be filled out by the donor, and a representative of the lab.

NPL WILL NOT APPRAISE SPECIMENS FOR DONATION.

DEED OF GIFT

This form establishes the donor has the right to donate the material (ie, it was all collected legally, is owned by the donor/s and nobody else has legal claim to the material). This form also points out which IRS forms are needed in cases where the donor plans to claim the material as a charitable donation valued at or above 500.00 USD. 

Form instructions:

Donor information is at the top. The primary donor should fill this out with their name and contact information.

History: Briefly describe how this material came to be the property of the donor- where was it collected? By whom? If the material is a whole collection, the history of where the collection came from should be included.

Description: We're looking for broad strokes and generalizations. Statements like "12 boxes of Paleobotony material" and "14 pcs. of rudist reef salvaged from construction site" are fine.

The donor should sign and date this form.

Scan this document into the appropriate folder in the Accession Folder in the DocLib/Accessions directory.

Accession Donor Form

Form instructions:

the Header:

Date, delivered by, receiver, and Accession Number are to be filled out before sitting with the donor. Donors can fill out the fields themselves, or a staff member can interview a donor and fill out the empty fields for them.

Type of Transaction:

This tells us what type of donation this is- field work, exchange, purchace and many other options. Normally, specimens are gifted to us, although sometimes the Curator or other researcher will purchase specimens.

The area below the drop down menu is for additional notes. Repository Agreement numbers, Bequest details as well as other types of transactions would go here.

Information Summary:

Some of this information is redundant, and filling in 'See above' (in the case of the Donated By: field) is perfectly acceptable. Encourage donors to generalize- we don't need each and every taxon determination for 500 specimens donated. Simply saying 'primarily rudists with some echinoids' is acceptable. If more space is needed, open a word document and save it as accessionNumber_DonorFormContinuted.

We no longer accept fossils with restrictions. We rarely will accept material that comes to us with conservation needs.

Accession Internal Use

Form instructions:

The Accession number entered at the top will populate the headers of each page.

Section 1:

Permits, Permission and Customs Forms

It is the repository's responsibility to ensure all permits for donated material are in order. The Bureau of Land Management, and the Federal Collecting permits (like National Park Service) are the ones we use the most. Remember, most invertebrate fossil collecting does not require permits as long as it's not on government land. Donors signing the deed of gift are ensuring that the material they donate was properly collected, and permits were obtained where the law requires it. This is a thin layer of protection for the lab, so it's up to us to check. All permits, land owner permission letters must reside with the lab.

International permitting:

Collecting permits from the source country are required for any material donated to the lab that was collected outside of US and its territories. An export permit is required from the country of origin. There can be NO exceptions on this. It is good practice to get a list of the donors colleagues who assisted in field work and assembling the material for export. This way, if a question arises that the donor can't answer, we have a list of contacts who may be able to help.

Permits for Recent of Living material:

Recent marine material makes up a small percentage of our collection, but we still are required to do our due diligence when we get recent material donated to us. If a donor wants to donate recently collected living or recently living material with no CITES or 3-177 there is no way this lab can take such donations. Other important permits, such as the Antarctic Conservation Act (ACA) permits pertain to native mammals and birds. Be aware it also covers much more, down to waste disposal, while doing research in the Antarctic. If a donor is donating material from the Antarctic, they should have a permit and are required to give us a copy.

Additional CITES information:

CITES permits must have other forms of validation. In this section, ensure all are present. We will have to deny donation of material that does not have Fish and Wildlife stamp, and the CITES permits from the source country and import country.

Section 2:

Source of donation:

Donations from a private collector, faculty or student:

Donations/Imports from within the UT Austin system- this includes professors who give us their collections as well as friends of the lab, who do not work at UT, who donate material to us. These are yes/no questions with an option for not applicable.

Donations from institutions:

Donations/Imports from outside the UT Austin system- this is when another institution donates a collection to us. For such donations, we require the catalogs and/or field notes from the original origination. The transmittal letter is the official request for NPL to take in the collection. This is different from the deed of gift, so yes, we need both. All permits must be included for NPL to accept a collection.

Section 3:

Post Processing:

This is internal housekeeping. In this section, we track if we've done all the things we're supposed to do- a letter of thanks to the donor, all accession paperwork filled out and so on down the line. Please fill all out as best you can.

Once all the paperwork is complete, you can either attach all 3 files to the accession record in Specify, or you can combine the PDF's into a single binder and attach that.

DeedOfGift.pdf

AccessionDonorForm.pdf

Accession_InternalUse.pdf