Sharing Samples

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The Loaning Process

All loan requests shall be directed to the curator. The curator will check the availability of the samples and confer with the collecting scientist regarding the sample's status and availability.

If the sample is available for loan, the borrower, the responsible scientist, and the curator shall sign a Sample Loan Agreement form, acknowledging conditions of the loans. A copy of the Loan Conditions will be provided to the borrower for their own records.

Conditions of the Loan

The borrowing party will be subject to the following conditions.

• Term of Loan: The samples shall be returned to the Woods Hole Science Center at the borrower's expense no later than the due date agreed upon and stated on the Loan Agreement or within one week after an earlier return is requested by the WHSC.
  
• Use of Property: The samples loaned shall be used for research and data extraction purposes. The borrower shall not loan, deliver, lease, or transfer the samples to any other institution, and the borrower shall clearly state that the sample belongs to the USGS Woods Hole Science Center sediment archive.
  
• Alteration of Sample: The borrower is responsible for notifying the WHSC of all tests and any alterations done to the sample while in the borrowers' care.
  
• Loss or Damage: It is recognized that analyses are generally destructive in nature. However, if the borrower intends to return the sample, the borrower shall be responsible to report any damage or loss of sediment due to any cause.

Sample Return Policy

Upon return of the sediment sample to the WHSC, the borrowing institution and the curator will sign the Outgoing Loan Agreement Form and the date of return shall be marked.

The Chain of Custody

Outside institutions shall be allowed to come into the USGS sediment archive to retrieve portions of samples for research. All requests shall be directed to the curator and the curator will check the availability of the requested sediment for sampling.

Upon arrival, the curator will have prepared a Chain of Custody form. This form will include the following information:

1. Researcher and affiliation
2. Date of sampling from WHSC Archives
3. Amount of sample taken
4. Locations on core of removed samples

The curator as well as the principal investigator from the outside institution sampling the core will then sign the Chain of Custody form. All alterations and samplings will then be recorded in the sediment archive database.

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