We encourage any researchers to visit in-person our collections when possible; our Museum collections are small and operate on a volunteer basis. Additionally, the Museum has limited resources and capacity to ship specimens, especially from November–January and May–August.
We are only able to ship within the U.S. at this time (no international shipments). All shipping costs are to be covered by the loan recipient, and require that an account number to which the shipping costs will be charged be provided. Please inquire as to our current options for carriers (i.e. UPS, FedEx, etc).
All loan requests should be directed to Dr. Megan Lahti, our Lead Curator. Please include a letter with letterhead from your institution/organization that provides the following information:
- Person requesting loan (responsible party)
- Other persons who will be handling the loaned specimens at any time including processing upon arrival/return and/or during research
- Qualifications of the requestor and any other persons involved with the handling of loaned specimens
- Research summary and justification for the request
- Timeline associated with the use of the specimen(s) including their anticipated date of return
- Methods associated with the use of any loaned specimens (including the justification for any destructive sampling)
- List of specimens that are being requested (GUID, Family, Genus, Species)
Special loan conditions may be determined depending on the nature of the loan. All specimens and specimen derivatives (e.g. DNA extractions) must be returned to the Museum upon completion of the project for which the loan request was made.
Truckee Meadows Community College (TMCC) retains ownership of all loaned specimens. Loan recipients are prohibited from providing specimens and/or their derivatives (i.e. DNA extracts) to a third party without written approval from the Lead Curator.
Any publications or research products that use the Museum specimens must acknowledge use of those specimens. Specimens should be cited by their ARCTOS GUID number (example: TMCC:Herp:00369). All genetic data obtained from any specimens must also be deposited into GenBank.