Manual Implementation & �Collection Management & Curation Course��Webinar 9�Collection storage and organisation�18 May 2022

Welcome and introduction

Fulufhelo Tambani

Specialist: Science Communication

Webinar guidelines for engagement

Keep your contributions helpful and considerate of the host and other participants

Chat box: Say hello! Let us know which institution you are from

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Q&A box: Add questions during the webinar. We will be answering some of your questions live at the end of the webinar.

Due to time constraints we might not be able to answer all your questions during the webinar, however answers will be provided to all questions on the webinar link afterwards.

nscf.org.za/resources/collections-management/

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What the webinar covers

• Accessions – getting new specimens into the collection
• Deaccessions – permanent removal of specimens from the collection
• Policy guidelines
• Standards – what to accept and what to discard
• Procedures / workflows for accessioning and deaccessioning

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Backlogs in un-accessioned specimens; collections donated …

New acquisitions for collections – where do they come from?

• Staff collecting trips
• Researchers and postgraduate students from universities / other institutions
• Members of the public
• Donation of a private collection
• Orphaned collection from another institution (institution closes, there are no staff to care for it)

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• Role of collection institutions is to serve as a repository for research collections – not only from own staff but from external researchers and postgraduate students.
• But its not always simple.

Policy guidelines for accessions

Policy statements are high level, not easily changed:

1. Any specimens or collections accepted into the institution will be within the agreed focus of the institution
2. Resources must be available to care for the collection according to the standards (staff, space, consumables, security) (collections that cannot be cared for according to the standards will not be accepted).
3. Accepted specimen/s were collected legally and ethically.
4. Any specimens accepted into the collection must meet the required standards in terms of quality and data.
5. A donation form / agreement must be signed by the donor and institutional representative for every specimen that comes in to the collection (staff of the institution – do they need to do this?).
6. A permanent record must be kept of every specimen that is accepted into the institution – irrespective of whether it is accessioned into the collection or not.
7. No privately owned collections to be housed in the institution (staff or external people)

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Annexures to the Policy = details, standards and procedures documents.

Policy guidelines – annexures / details – may need to be amended more frequently that the policy

1. What collections / materials will be accepted – institution’s focus and strategy

• What taxa and what type of materials –.
• What would you say if ….
• The National Herbarium is advised by the SANBI Board to take a collection of mammal skins from the animals at the National Zoo that have died?
• SAIAB is offered a collection of pinned aquatic insects that has been built up over the last 50 years from a university?
• Bayworld is told that the provincial MEC wants to lodge his private collection of butterflies there?
• Compton Herbarium is offered a valuable collection of artifacts that show how plants were historically used by traditional people in the Western Cape (baskets, carvings, artwork)?
• A private collector leaves her collection of rare shells from around the world to the East London Museum?
• A new Curator of Entomology at Durban Museum wants to start a collection of marine invertebrates because he goes diving every weekend and has collected important specimens.
• A PhD student who has done a large project on monitoring insect diversity wants to deposit 5000 mixed / unsorted samples from Malaise traps at KZN Museum.
• A researcher who has done a project on Marula trees wants to deposit 480 herbarium mounts of this species from the same locality in a herbarium?

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How do you say no to an instruction from high up, or to anyone else if you don’t have a policy / document that guides you – that you can refer to.

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1. Details of the scope of specimens that will be accepted

• Which taxa?
• Which type of specimens / material – preserved specimens – skins, skulls, bones, soft tissues in preservative / whole specimens in ethanol / formalin, frozen whole specimens, DNA extracts, tissue samples for DNA extraction
• Mixed / unsorted samples – mostly relevant to ecological studies that include invertebrates
• Duplicates: large numbers of individual specimens – same species, locality and time of collection? Maximum number? What about the temporal or geographic spread?
• Documents associated with the collection or specimens – data sheets, field notes, drawings, research notes, photos / or digital information (scans, images, habitat images, dataset)

2. Procedure / checklist for assessing resource needs before accepting specimens or a collection

3. Specimens must have been collected legally and ethically

• Permits – the legislation says that you can only accept specimens that have proof that the specimens were legally obtained (written land owner permission, collecting permit, export permit out of the province where they were collected) and in some provinces and for some specimens, a permit to donate is required.
• Often these documents are not available – especially for old specimens. May need to contact DFFE or provincial authority to get approval, especially if its CITES or TOPS material.
• From other countries – they need to have authorised the export from their country (Nagoya Protocol)
• Section 20 permit for animals (Animal Disease Control permits)
• Ethics – was there ethical clearance for collecting / killing? Is there any possibility that the specimens were stolen or smuggled out of another country without permission?
• Does the person donating have the right to donate the specimens or collection (are they the owner)?

4. Specimens must meet the required standards

• Condition of specimens – most important is whether they can be used for research purposes. Need some points to check against.
• What is the minimum amount of data that each specimen must have? Locality (detailed or with accurate co-ordinates), date of collection, collector?

5. Donation form / agreement must be signed

• Donor details (be careful of POPIA requirements if you ask for ID number, phone number – must ensure that these are protected)
• Information about the specimen/s – how many, where are they from, whether they are from a project
• Any publication/s that they are associated with?
• Any documentation (hard copy or electronic) for the specimens (data sheets, photos, database / spreadsheet)
• Donor will have to agree to donate the specimens with no conditions, and to hand over all rights to the specimens
• Must be signed by the receiving institution, and the list of specimens, list of documents must be signed off on to say that they were received

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6. Permanent record of every specimen that comes into the institution

• Hand written in ink in a register, and signed off.
• May not be every individual specimen – but there needs to be a count of how many specimens if there is only one entry.
• Best practice is to record every consignment – returning loans, incoming loans, specimens for identification, specimens from staff collecting trip, donation of a specimen from a member of the public. With date received, and then what happens to it – returned to owner, sent to data capture unit, placed in new accessions cabinet for further processing etc and the date that this was done, and signed by the recipient.

7. No private collections

• In the past there have been curators or researchers in institutions who have built up their own collection and when they resigned or retired they took this with them.
• Private collections where the donor wants to retain ownership but wants the institution to care for the collection, special conditions – e.g. must be able to approve or decline any request for access, can’t be passed on to another institution, etc…
• May be acceptable to allow a time-bound embargo on donated specimens, new specimens collected by staff (more on this in the next webinar on access).

Procedures - donations

Procedures: accessioning

Procedures: incoming specimen recording

Workflows

• Receiving specimens and recording in accessions register
• Decontamination process
• Data capture
• Identification of specimens and recording identity
• Labelling
• Remounting / rebottling / preparation
• Filing / placing specimens in collection

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De-accessions

https://lyndhurstgroup.medium.com/the-deaccessioning-dilemma-3b6e30c8bd54

Policy guidelines for deaccessioning

1. Collections or individual specimens may be permanently removed from the collection under the following circumstances:

• Permanent transfer of a collection or specimens to another institution: orphaned collection – not in focus of institution, lack of adequate resources to care for the collection, repatriation to country of origin, exchange programme, scientific purposes – deposition of paratypes or isotypes
• Specimens that have deteriorated or are damaged to an extent where they are no longer useful for research, including loss of associated information or where evidence that labels have been mixed up
• Specimens were illegally obtained (may be confiscated or destroyed by authorities)
• Specimens that pose significant health risk to staff
• Permanent loss of specimens – through post, fire
• Specimens from another institution that were catalogued / accessioned in error

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Policy guidelines for deaccessions

2. Deaccessioning of any specimens / collections must follow the approved process and have the required authorisations.

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3. Deaccessioning must be legally compliant in terms of permits for transferring to another institution, in terms of waste management for specimens to be disposed of and in terms of health safety.

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4. A full record of the decision-making process must be maintained and be available in response to queries from the public, donor, governance structures and auditors.

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5. Deaccessioned specimens may not be sold.

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6. Collections and specimens may be donated to another institution but not to individuals.

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Process for de-accessioning

• Collection manager or curator identifies specimens / collection to be de-accessioned.
• Check whether there was any documentation associated with the material – donor forms, collection permits, publications, data sheets. Check what these say about transferring the material to a third party / destroying it or its significance.
• Develop a motivation that includes:
• accession numbers, description of the material, including its condition, its provenance – where it comes from and how it got into the institution;
• whether there are any requirements for de-accessioning – permits / donor;
• the reasons why it should be de-accessioned;
• what is proposed to do with it (transfer to another institution, destruction, move to display section and if to another institution, state whether they have agreed to accept it and if there are any conditions)
• Estimated resource requirements for de-accessioning and transfer / disposal (time, consumables, packaging, transport, waste disposal)

De-accessioning process

• Once the motivation is compiled, it needs to go for approval – Committee or EXCO or Board or department – needs to be signed off by the Accounting Authority.
• If going to another institution there must be a formal agreement stating terms of transfer / donation – what each institution will do, who will cover what costs, time frames, what the new institution can and cannot do with the specimens, what will be transferred – how many specimens in what state, whether any storage infrastructure will be donated, who will obtain permits, at what point the ownership will be transferred.

De-accessioning process

• Obtain any permits or approvals from issuing authorities for the transfer
• Check the list of specimens against the specimens to ensure that everything is correct.
• Package for transfer / contact the disposal company / transfer to exhibitions unit.
• Record in database / accessions register that the specimen /s have been deaccessioned (briefly say what has happened – sent to .., destroyed ..), with date that it happened and include a scan of any documentation – permits, approval, motivation.
• For any specimens that are destroyed, photograph these first and retain the labels and images on file – can be attached to the record in the database.

Destruction

Based on motivation – either organise for inhouse destruction or procure company for disposal

Photograph each specimen, remove label and scan, add to database linked to specimens, file hardcopy of labels

Summary

• Policy document on accessions and deaccessions
• Standards document for what will be accepted for the collection
• Workflows for whole process of accessions and also for each step in the process. Must include time frames that are adhered to by staff
• Forms – donation form, tracking form
• Hardcopy accessions / acquisitions / incoming specimens register
• Standards for deaccessions – how will you know when a specimen is no longer useful for research? What are the rules for exchanging duplicates?
• Workflow for deaccessioning
• Forms: Deaccessioning order form
• Filing system for all hardcopy documents
• Filing system for all electronic documents / images and these linked in the database to the specimen record/s
• Specimen database
• Make sure there is someone who recommends, and at least two approvers for everything

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• Permits – how to deal with donations that don’t have the correct collecting permits or Section 20 permits?
• Staff collecting material when there is already a massive backlog of specimens that are waiting to be accessioned / prepared and integrated into the collection – is this ethical? Surely it’s a priority to deal with backlogs before collecting more material?
• Processes to be followed by internal researchers who collect – does this go through the central accessioning process or straight to their lab / desk?
• Ever expanding collections and ever shrinking resources – less budget, fewer staff. How can we deal with this?

Discussion Forum

• Inputs from collection-based staff on lessons learned from donating a collection or receiving an orphaned collection; dealing with backlogs in accessions; workflows for accessioning specimens. Volunteers please.

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• Developing workflows – some practice with this.

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END

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Accessioning and Deaccessioning Policy and Procedures

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