Dear Conservators, collections staff and IPM’ers
Over a few years, on the other thread in this forum, and in particularly at a meeting held during the Global EMu User Conference last year there has been a growing desire to improve the potential of EMu as a tool to facilitate the preventive conservation of collections – and more specifically in relation to insect pests. Since that meeting the Smithsonian NMNH and Natural History Museum, London have been collaborating on the attached document as a mechanism to promote wider discussion on the topic and hopefully arrive at a consistent model.
Your feedback on the attached discussion document would be greatly appreciated. Please reply in this thread for all to view.
SYNOPSIS
There are many factors that present a risk to the long-term preservation of our national and international heritage yet with ongoing improvements to EMu, driven by the user community (e.g. Conservation, Pest Events), the centralisation of documentation is providing collections staff with an invaluable and powerful resource to inform collections care strategies.
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It is possible to observe imperceptible changes in objects through a history of condition reports and, through continued monitoring, it is possible to see the effectiveness of any stabilisation treatment.
It is now also possible to assess the potential risk of damage to collections from the background population of insects within a building infrastructure, and use this information to develop strategies and protocols to deter these populations
. Dave Smith
Earth Sciences Data Manager
Natural History Museum, London