NCPAL Facility Use Policy Overview

New College Public Archaeology Laboratory (NCPAL), established in 2010, is located in the central part of the Bay Front campus near the Ball Anthropology Lab and the Four Winds Café. NCPAL is a student-centered facility, meant for New College undergraduates to engage in anthropological analysis and research into and preservation of Sarasota-Manatee regional heritage. Priority in using lab space is given to students working on projects directly related to the NCPAL mission statement under the supervisor of the Director.

NCPAL Collections Policy
Although NCPAL staff does not actively seek collections, it may seek to acquire certain collections to strengthen the thematic focus of the NCPAL holdings. Acquisition of materials is focused on the mission statement:

The New College Public Archaeology Laboratory (NCPAL) of New College of Florida is committed to facilitating education, outreach, and the study of archaeology within a broader anthropological and interdisciplinary context. As both a physical space and intellectual project curated by New College students and faculty, NCPAL is dedicated to the ethical advancement of knowledge about past human cultures and societies in order to engage with social issues of the present. Utilizing the rich resources of the region's diverse communities, NCPAL produces and disseminates valuable knowledge of our shared cultural heritage.

The region is understood as being Sarasota County, Manatee County, southern Tampa Bay, northern Charlotte Harbor, areas to the immediate east of those counties, and the coastal areas of the Gulf of Mexico as well as societies that have influenced the region.

Collections will not be acquired unless they meet the temporal, geographic and research design criteria necessary to satisfy research and educational needs within NCPAL’s ongoing programs. All collections, at the discretion of the Director, are available for undergraduate research.

All artifacts are required to be cleaned, sorted by provenience, and properly labeled before being processed at the repository. Artifacts and collections which are not in proper condition are either refused for curation at that time or properly processed at the repository for a fee. Artifacts are required to be in zip-lock bags with a white label field and marked with permanent marker indicating their proveniences. All artifact collections must be accompanied by an artifact inventory list.

Artifact collections are re-inventoried at the repository and re-boxed into NCPAL standard sized boxes with telescoping lids and labeled in ink or typed with permanent adhesive labels. Label information includes box number, project and company name, site number if applicable, provenience and contents. Each box also contains a copy of the repository box inventory sheet. Artifact boxes are stored on enameled metal shelves 37 inches long, 24 inches wide, and 82 inches high and are organized by row, rack, and shelf number. Boxes are stacked no more than two boxes high. Original repository inventory sheets are on New College bond letterhead and are filed in the Director’s office. A catalog system provides an identification and inventory of materials. It is current through ongoing field research, and should be kept up to date by the lab technician.

Best Practices Requirements
All activities in the lab must fulfill the ethical standards of the Society for Historical Archaeology, Society for Archaeological Archaeology, American Anthropological Association, and the World Archaeology Congress (copies of the Codes of Ethics will be available in the Lab; the organizations have them on line), the legal requirements of the Native American Graves Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), and all state regulations.

Collections may be left on lab tables for analysis with the permission of the lab technician but only for specified lengths of time. Good laboratory practices include storing all items and tools not in active use. Any student or other researcher who violates those good practices will lose permission to use the lab.

Library
NCPAL maintains cultural resource management reports, history and archaeology books, oral history records, and other written heritage materials relating to its mission. NCPAL is not a repository for those items.

The Repository/Storage Room of NCPAL
The repository room was designed specifically for the purpose of curating archaeological collections. All shelving is commercial grade adjustable steel units. All storage materials are archival quality. The curation lab/repository is environmentally controlled by an air conditioning unit with temperature maintained at 70 degrees F. with a relative humidity of 50 percent. Access to the facility is limited, with only the NCPAL Director and the lab technician having keys/access codes; only collections approved by the Director are to be stored in the repository room.

The purpose of the archaeological and ethnological collections is to support NCPAL mission statement: the education of New College students, the research needs of its faculty and staff, and the functioning of its heritage preservation program.

NCPAL Repository Policy
The repository space is an important resource designed to fulfill the needs of the lab, both present and future. For the first five years of the NCPAL facility, there will be two categories of storage: collections on temporary loan which will be maintained by the Director and collections in permanent storage and the responsibility of NCPAL in perpetuity. The primary use of the repository will be for materials related to the NCPAL mission statement. Those materials pertaining to the regional heritage of southwest Florida, relevant to the NCPAL director’s research, or significant for pedagogical purposes, may be stored in the repository room. Upon approval of the Director, NCPAL will take on temporary loan other research and pedagogical materials from New College faculty, staff, and students, but with the stipulation that the depositor will recover the materials within one year, with extensions until the five-year mark. Deaccession will be the result of non-compliance. For donations accepted by the Director, a Deed of Gift form is required. After five years, the NCPAL facility will access and curate only materials evaluated by the Director as related to the NCPAL mission statement.

Uses of the Collection
The uses of the collection are for research, teaching, and small, temporary exhibits. The users of the collection include New College faculty, staff and students; visiting scholars who may travel to the curatorial facility to study portions of the collection; and community groups who may propose and install temporary exhibits in cooperation with the Director. Departments at New College of Florida, such as Admissions, may request exhibits and visitation for public tours, facilitated by the lab technician.

Artifacts and records removed for teaching purposes need to signed-out and returned in a timely manner.

NCPAL will host exhibits that relate to the mission statement and are approved by the Director. Proposals for using NCPAL materials for exhibits are considered in terms of the overall theme of the exhibit, the security of the exhibition place, potential detrimental effects upon artifacts or specimens (depending upon the exhibit plan), and the potential that the exhibit or some part of it may be objectionable to others. The decision belongs to the Director.

NCPAL Policies Review
These policies should be reviewed every three years by the Director, and revised as necessary to account for changes which may occur in college programs or the specific conditions of archaeological collections curation.

In the interim, any questions regarding the Director’s decisions can be appealed. The NCPAL is run out of the Provost Office; the Provost is responsible for locating the appropriate venue for appeals of the Director’s decisions.

Division of Social Sciences
New College of Florida
5800 Bay Shore Road
Sarasota, Florida 34243

ncpal@ncf.edu
(941) 487-4590