First and foremost, determine if the contents are temperature sensitive. If so, make sure they are placed immediately in an appropriate fridge, cold room, or freezer. Notify the lab member who placed the order the exact location. Do this either in person, via email or a note on the orderer’s desk. In the Strahl Lab, this information is written on the white board near Brian’s office in the section “Package Receipt Notes.” The orderer can be determined by looking on the ordering sheet. If you are giving instructions to another lab to send you reagents, it is helpful and advisable to have them address the package to: “Attn.: Lab Name / Your Name.” Make certain you have the correct shipping address in every detail, as posted prominently in each lab.
If a package’s contents are not temperature sensitive, whenever possible take your turn putting them away as each of our labs receives 500-700 packages per year. If you are especially busy, simply place the box on the lab manager’s lab bench so that he may handle it at his earliest convenience.
In any case, it is crucial that you place the packing slip in a tray on or near the bookshelf on the lab manager’s desk that is labeled “Packing Slips.” (A packing slip is the list of a box’s contents that is included with all orders. Often it is located in a plastic sleeve on the outside of the box.)
After correctly dealing with the contents of a delivery, flatten any cardboard and place it in the holder some 30 seconds from the labs by the freight elevator. No one is too busy to do that. Styrofoam boxes may also be placed there because styrofoam is not recyclable at UNC. There is no need to retain them for any future shipments we will make because the lab manager already maintains a stock of shipping boxes under the bench on which the Typhoon sits in Bay 3059. Cardboard and styrofoam shipping boxes should not be left in the bays for safety reasons; bays are often crowded and can trip a busy researcher when underfoot. Also, shipping boxes in the bays should be unusual enough that one demands investigation. This way samples are more unlikely to be misplaced or left erroneously at room temperature.