Priority in Preparation of Specimens
Incoming, unprocessed specimens are first reviewed by the Collection Manager in cooperation with the Curators and their priority for preparation assessed. They may be given to a technical assistant for immediate preparation, or they may be relegated to one of several lower priority levels. Priorities for processing of materials are as follows:
• Specimens which may deteriorate if not processed immediately.
• Specimens required for immediate research by staff and associated students, visiting scientists, or associates, or which are required for immediate loan.
• Specimens for which there is a known interest and need in the entomological community.
• Specimens for which special commitments exist.
• Specimens which augment the strengths of the collections and add to their comparative base.
• Specimens from geographic areas or habitats of special interest (e.g. from endangered habitats, areas under collective study, poorly known habitats or regions, etc.).
In recent years special effort has been made to avoid increasing the numbers
of specimens relegated to inaccessible status among the museum's backlog.
To this end, unaccessioned samples which contain material of low preparation
priority for the Snow Entomological Museum, or that are beyond our ability
to prepare in a timely manner, but are known to contain specimens of interest
to other researchers or museums, are shipped to these museums or researchers.
These then become the property of those institutions, subject only to
various mutually desirable agreements. This policy has the substantial
advantage of making valuable material available for study that would otherwise
remain inaccessible in the Snow Museum's backlog for long periods of time.
As a result of this approach, no new material has been added to the backlog
of the Snow Entomological Museum in the last seven years, and more material
has been made available to the systematics community than could have been
prepared as a result of the resources of our museum alone.