Application Process
Under certain circumstances, material from the collection may be loaned to researchers for a period of six months. Loans are not made to individuals, but rather to the institution where the borrower works. In the case of loans made for student use, a faculty member at the borrowing institution (in most cases the student's academic advisor) must agree to take responsibility for the loan.
Please note that the Department of Mammalogy does not normally loan primates or type specimens. Requests for loans of specimens should be made by completing a Specimen Loan Request and emailing a copy to [email protected]. Be sure to include complete contact information for the person requesting the loan, a brief project description including methods and goals, type of storage and security available for the specimens while on loan, and a detailed list of specimens and preparation type(s) you would like to borrow.
If you propose to undertake any destructive sampling of AMNH specimens, including making molds, you must also submit an application (with full justification). See the destructive sampling page for details.
If you are interested in borrowing tissues, please see the information about tissue loans on the the tissue collections page.
All requests to CT-scan AMNH Mammalogy specimens must be accompanied by a commitment to archive the resulting slices, accompanied by complete and accurate metadata (minimally including species identification, AMNH Mammalogy catalog number, and such other information as the data archivers may require) with MorphoSource, an NSF-supported digital-image repository hosted by Duke University. Furthermore, after the request is approved, but before specimen access is granted, the researcher must provide our collection manager with documentation that an agreement has been reached with the management of Morphosource (currently Dr. Doug Boyer: [email protected]) spelling out the terms of file transfer, an anticipated delivery date, and relevant information about the length of data embargo (if any).