- To consult the herbarium an appointment should made through either the curator, associate curator or the collections manager.
- Prior to visitors consulting the collection, herbarium staff will explain rules and safety regulations that apply to the collection.
- All visitors must sign the herbarium visitors' book and state the reason of the consultation.
- Specimens must not be removed from the herbarium without permission from herbarium staff.
- Specimens should be handled with care. Do not bend, fold or turn sheets face downward. Place all detached fragments in a packet and glue this onto the sheet.
- Do not return specimens to the collection. This will be done by herbarium staff as with librarians in libraries.
- No drinks or food are permitted within the collection areas and smoking is prohibited in the building.
- Visitors should ensure that specimens brought into the building are free of pests. Returned loans, gifts or exchange material should be given to the collections manager to be placed in the freezer for 5-7 days to ensure pest-free status.
- Plant material should not be removed from the sheet without prior permission from the curator of the herbarium. If permission is granted, annotations indicating the nature of the use and location of removed parts must be placed on corresponding specimen sheets. All dissected portions and fragments, including permanent micro-preparations must be placed in a suitable envelope attached to the corresponding herbarium sheet from which they originated.
- Type specimens are irreplaceable and should be handled and stored with special care that recognizes their unique importance to botanical science. Any type specimen discovered should be so identified with reference to the basionym, place of publication, and author. Any additional information relating to the type specimen or its interpretation should also be appended with an annotation label.
- All examined material should be annotated as fully as possible by the investigator. All annotation slips should be composed of acid-free paper preferably being small labels. Written labels should be made in permanent indelible ink. The annotation label should include the name of the taxon and author(s), and the annotator's name and date of annotation, as well as the name of the borrowing institution. These slips should be glued to the specimen sheets near to the herbarium label which is usually in the lower right hand corner. White permanent glue such as Weldbond should be used to attach the annotation slip at one end. Care should be taken that glue around the edge of a recently attached label does not result in sheets sticking together. This can be assured by wiping the label's edges.
- Never write on an herbarium specimen label or existing annotation slip.
- The data on labels can sometimes be amplified. Such amplifications will be appreciated, especially when it involves adding relevant collection information such as locality, collector, collection numbers etc. Please notify collection manager if information seems incorrect or additional information is available.
- When listed in a publication, all Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada specimens should be cited with the accepted herbarium acronym "DAO". We appreciate being informed of all publications in which DAO specimens are cited.
- We would appreciate receiving reprints of papers based upon our specimens. These will be incorporated in our reprint collection.
Note: The consequences of any lack of attention to these conditions, for example leading to unreasonable damage to specimens, will result in limited future access.