Acquisition Policy for the Herbarium in the Botany Department
of the California Academy of Sciences

A. Priorities for Acquisition
1. First priority: to strengthen collection areas in which a department has a current specialization and recognized holdings and historical interest. This includes materials of direct use in present or projected research or in current educational or exhibition programs; materials of high quality needed to fill gaps or supplement specimens of lesser quality in the current holdings; and materials from biotas, geologic strata, and cultures where technological changes of habitat modification by man or nature place a time limit on the period in which sampling can take place.

2. Second priority: to broaden the comparative base of our established collection areas. This includes archival materials such as voucher specimens for published research, synoptical materials from specialists, and materials which will strengthen a collection area adjacent to a previously established one.

3. Third priority: to obtain collections of general nature which are within the broad interest of the Academy. This includes interesting or unique but inadequately documented specimens that are of limited use in a scientific sense by may be used for exhibit or other educational purposes.

B. Mode of Acquisition
1. The Academy will acquire specimens primarily through field collection, but also by gift, bequest, exchange, and purchase, for the purposed of preservation, research, teaching, and exhibition.

a. The Academy will provide for storage, protection, and preservation of objects under conditions that insure their availability and in keeping with professional accepted standards.

b. It is intended that the objects shall remain in the collections as long as they retain their physical integrity, their authenticity, and their relevance for the purposed of the Academy.

2. The Academy normally will not acquire items for sale but may acquire for exchange.

a. If gift/bequest collections, or parts of collections, are acquired with the intent of disposal of a portion by exchange, outright gift, or other means, the donor or heirs will be so informed.

b. If gift/bequest collections or parts of collections, are acquired for use by one of the educational units of the Academy the donor will be so informed.

3. It is recognized that acquisition of materials often must be opportunistic. From time to time, collections of recognized national or international significance become available, either from individuals or institutions that no longer are able or willing to preserve, maintain, and use them in research and educational activities. Acceptance of responsibility for such collections may involve establishing a new interest area for the Academy. Acquisition and accessioning of such collections must be judged on their individual merits, carefully weighing the values and costs of such acquisitions against the evolving programs and emphases of the Academy.

C. Laws Concerning Specimen Acquisition
Specimens will be acquired by the Academy only when they have been obtained in full compliance with the law and regulations of the countries of origin, of the federal government of the United States, and of the individual states within the United States. The staff will not knowingly support illegal trade by authenticating or expressing opinions concerning material, and will discourage the collection or exhibition of such materials. Every reasonable effort must be made to insure that these conditions be met, that titles of the specimen or specimens may properly be transferred to the Academy, and that the Academy keeps up to date on the changing laws and regulations concerning permits, specimen collecting, ownership, and movement across political boundaries.

D. Ethics of Specimen Acquisition
Specimens shall be accepted that have been collected in such a way as to preserve their scientific value, e.g., biological materials with adequate documentation or archaeological and geological objects taken with proper recording of site and stratigraphic data. Collections that involve unnecessary destruction of sites, or decimation of populations having limited numbers of tenuous existence shall now knowingly be made by staff members or accepted by the Academy from others. In all actions, the Academy and its staff must act as responsible conservationists and scientists aiming to preserve and guard the living cultural heritage of the earth.

E. Conditions of Acceptance
1. Minimum requirements of documentation vary in the several scientific departments. Such standards are necessary prerequisites for specimens to be added to the collections.

2. Specimens with inadequate date, but having scientific or other value, may be accepted at the discretion of the department chairman.

3. Undocumented specimens that are good examples of their type may be acquired for use in exhibition and educational programs.

4. All acquisitions must conform to the following conditions.

a. Approval of the department chairman.

b. The legal and ethical stipulations set forth in Sections C and D above.

c. The material must be the legal property of the donor/institution/dealer making the offer, or he/she/it must have legal authority to dispose of said material.

5. The Academy cannot accept specimens on which restrictions are placed with would prevent effective research use, normal exhibition use, loan, or disposal. The Academy will not normally accept specimens on conditions which would require that they be placed on exhibition, or that the collections of which they form a part should be kept together permanently and/or displayed only as a discrete collection. Permission to deviate from this procedure must receive approval of the Executive Director.

F. Evaluation of Acquisitions and Other Materials
No person acting as an employee of the Academy shall give appraisals for any purpose, including establishing the tax-deductible value of gifts offered to the Academy, nor shall he or she identify or otherwise authenticate for persons or agencies specimens under circumstances that could encourage or benefit illegal, unethical, or irresponsible traffic in such materials, or when there is reason to believe such identifications will be used primarily for commercial purposes. Identification and authentication (but not appraisals) may be given for scientific or educational purposes or in compliance with the legitimate requests of government bodies or their agents.

Use Policy~Loan Policy~Destructive Sampling Policy