1. Complete the UF Herbarium’s loan contract. This only needs to be done once for all loans you want us to request for your study. But, there may need to be a discussion about case space with your advisor, if you want a lot of loans.
  2. Contact the herbarium staff where you plan to visit to arrange for the visit. Some herbaria will refuse you entry without an appointment.
  3. Inform the UF Herbarium Collection Manager that you plan to visit herbaria X,Y,Z, (acronym based on Index Herbariorum) and want to select specimens for loan. Please provide the title of your project, summary of the material you are selecting and what destructive analysis procedures you want to utilize the material for.
    E.g., “We request permission to remove no more than 1 square cm. of leaf material for DNA extractions. Mary Doe has perfected a C-tab protocol for use with herbarium material. Nuclear ITS, plastid trnL-trnF, and trnS-trnG regions will be sequenced, as well as matK and psbM-trnD for some species.”
  4. The UF Herbarium Collection Manager will provide you a loan request letter to carry with you and/or email it to the institution. Some institutions prefer for you to show up with a request in hand.
  5. Please note that the UF Herbarium will need copies of all destructive analysis agreements for our files. If the destructive analysis agreement is worded as a “material transfer agreement” then only the Provost office at UF can authorize the signature. We will be working with the Museum Administration to get a clear direction on this.

If you plan to visit an institution only for the purpose of specimen sampling and do not plan to select a loan, please be aware that some institutions may still prefer to loan you the material than let you do the sampling in house. Therefore, it is recommended that you take a loan request with you or have us email one in advance of the visit.