Eight Quick Tips for Requesting Materials from Natural History Collections
A practical guide to borrowing museum specimens
Today PLOS Computational Biology published “Eight quick tips for requesting materials from natural history collections”, by Giovanna Yumi Scorsim Omura, Denise Furr, and me. The paper shows researchers how to borrow museum specimens, protect them, and earn the trust of the curators who lend them.
The 73 largest natural history collections in the world hold more than 1.1 billion objects. Digitization made those specimens easy to find online. Borrowing them is another matter. Every museum has its own loan policy, and no standard procedure exists. A student who needs tissue for DNA extraction or a shell for imaging often learns the rules by trial and error. Each error costs time for the student and for the collection staff.
The eight tips
We organized the tips around the life of a loan, from the first database search to the return shipment.
- Understand the databases available to you. Aggregators such as GBIF, iDigBio, and VertNet help you find specimens, but each collection’s own management system often holds more current records.
- Prepare a meticulous and accurate specimen list. Verify identifications and give catalog numbers, localities, preparation types, and dates.
- Craft an effective loan request. Explain the research question, the methods, the timeline, and who at your institution will take responsibility for the loan.
- Handle specimens ethically and prioritize non-destructive methods. Justify any destructive sampling, and document the condition of the material when it arrives.
- Anticipate challenges and remain adaptable. Expect delays, split shipments, outdated names, and the occasional denied request.
- Communicate promptly throughout the loan period. Send updates, share your publications, and deposit sequences and scans with the voucher catalog numbers.
- Return specimens on time and in proper condition. Reuse the original packing, photograph the return, and ask whether the collection wants the leftover DNA.
- Build long-term relationships with curators and societies. Credit the collection, join relevant societies, and look for shared projects.
The supporting information adds a template loan request letter, a step-by-step checklist for the whole loan process, and advice on building a professional network with curators.
Where the tips came from
Giovanna led this work. Her dissertation depends on Triodopsis land snails from museum collections, and the tips come from our own experience with zoological collections, especially mollusks. Denise Furr, of the Schiele Museum of Natural History in Gastonia, North Carolina, brought the view from the other side of the loan desk. We presented the core ideas at the 2025 meeting of the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections in Lawrence, Kansas.
We thank the invertebrate and mollusk curators and staff of the Schiele Museum of Natural History, the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Florida Museum of Natural History, and Field Museum of Natural History. Their help gave us the experience behind this paper.
Share the flyer
The visual summary above works as a flyer. Print it for your department, post it in your collection, or send it to a student who is about to write a first loan request.
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