loan etiquette versus identification requests

[Stuart Fullerton]

how right you are!  and the error therein was in my part.  i had noted at
that time under some less than optimum e-mail conditions that i was
running malaise traps at that time and and and. and this person wrote from
Sweden that he would like to look at and be willing to I.D. the cynipoids
for us.  So i suspect the problem is ours. i sent them to have the i.d.
done.  alas it is all now water over the dam and the next time around i
will do better.  as it is, messages have gone out to the folks at Lund
Univ in Lund Sweden to see if they can chat with the person involved and
get the material returned to me. I do have another offer to do the work,
and it is from a person i have met, and respect, and i know that that the
identifications will be forth comming. in fact i have just sent out
several thousand specimens to this person.  the chap in sweden has not
done anything and evertime there is cross communication, it is to the
effect as to why he has been unable but expresses not the willingness to
return the specimens.  so i learn.  i am young as it were and it all comes
down to good judgement and experience. And-- as the american author "mark
twain" said:

        good judgement comes from experience.

        experience comes from bad judgement.

and so on i move.

thanks to you all in my investment in learning.

cheers!  rof


On Tue, 5 Oct 1999, christian thompson wrote:

> The posted comments on loan etiquette are interesting, but there is one
> aspect that remains unclear from Stuart's original post.  He wrote:
>
> >suggestions please: in late l995 i was asked if i would send some
> >specimens overseas for identification. a loan was made up ...
>
> What has been posted about loans is OK, but if one is really speaking about
> an identification request other considerations are involved.  While
> identification requests may be treated by some organizations as a "loan,"
> they are NOT and should not be confused.
>
> A loan is something a person wants to borrow for their research, whereas an
> identification request is asking for someone to perform a service for your
> research/benefit. Hence, there is a fundamental difference, if it is a loan
> you can set the criteria for the transaction, but if you want an
> identification then the identifier set the criteria.
>
>
> F. Christian Thompson
> Systematic Entomology Lab., USDA
> Smithsonian Institution
> Washington, D. C. 20560
> (202) 382-1800 voice
> (202) 786-9422 FAX
> cthompso at sel.barc.usda.gov
>

Stuart M Fullerton ROF, Research Associate in charge of Arthropod
Collections (UCFC), Biology Dept. University of Central Florida, Orlando,
Florida, 32816, USA. stuartf at pegasus.cc.ucf.edu