7871

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 7871
• Author: Snyder, D. E.
• Title: Preserved Larval and Small-Fish Collections of the Upper Colorado River Basin
• USFW Year: 1996.
• USFW - Doc Type: Maintenance and Cataloging of a Valuable Historical Database - Final Report.
• Copyright Material: NO

~

LFL COLLECTION POLICIES AND PROCEDURES MANUAL

2

improved care, management, and accessibility for that portion of the collection. Aside from
long-term materials and salary support for on-going collection maintenance and
management, priorities for solicitation of future support include: (1) expansion of collection
storage capacity, (2) shelf trays for lots in 2, 8, and 16-oz jars, (3) upgrades to and
cataloging of remaining UCRB backlog lots, (4) upgrades to and cataloging of all other
(non-UCRB) backlog specimens, (5) reinforcement of wooden shelving, and (6) continued
efforts to ensure the permanency of the collection. Appendix I is a more detailed draft
strategic plan for the LFL Collection.

LFL Collection Policies and Procedures

Within the fmancial, facility, and practical limitations of LFL, collection
management and policies follow guidelines set forth in the Association of the Systematic
Collections Guidelines for Institutional Policies and Planning in Natural History
Collections (Hoagland 1994). Curatorial procedures were established in part through
experience, consultation with curators and managers of other collections, and guidelines and
suggestions in various publications of the Collections Committee of the American Society of
Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, including Curation Newsletter. These policies and
procedures become formally effective at such time as this manual is considered final by LFL
(as indicated by removal of the word "draft" from the title page). Most have long been
standard, if undocumented, LFL practice, some were more recently established (e.g.,
collection cataloging in 1991), and a some (e.g., formal accessions procedures) remained to be
implemented as this document was prepared and reviewed.

Administration

Management and policy for the LFL Collection are the collective responsibility of
LFL's senior staff but are subject to pertinent federal, state, and university regulations and
policies. One member of LFL's senior staff is designated as the LFL Collection Curator and
is responsible for overseeing all curatorial activities in accord with the following policies and
procedures. The curator may be assisted in these responsibilities by a collection manager or
assistant, other principal staff, and laboratory technicians or student volunteers. Decisions by
the curator may be appealed to the LFL Director for joint reconsideration by LFL's senior
staff.

Acquisitions and Accessions

Specimens for the LFL Collection are acquired through in-house research and culture,
deposition by public and private agencies and researchers (often from collections processed or
taxonomically verified by LFL), and exchanges with other researchers, organizations, and
museums maintaining similar collections. Except for educational and reference purposes, LFL
generally restricts acquisitions to early life stages (eggs, larvae, and young-of-the-year and
yearling juveniles) and small adults of fishes from North America's freshwaters and estuaries.
Within that scope and available physical and financial resources, LFL considers most offers
for deposition, donation, or exchange of specimens and particularly encourages offers of taxa
and life stages not well represented in LFL holdings. However, contributions of large sets of