Announcement for Integrated Pest Management Policies
The Integrated Pest Management Working Group (IPM-WG) is a group of
collection managers, conservators and other professionals interested in
issues surrounding the implementation of integrated pest management in
museum and other collection-holding institutions. The group is informally
hosted by the American Museum of Natural History in New York and meets on
an ad-hoc basis. The goal of the group is to promote and facilitate good
IPM practices and collaboration between staff and institutions through
the development and on-line distribution of training materials and other
resources. The group also maintains the IPM listserve which provides a
forum for discussion of IPM-related topics.
One of our major objectives is to provide an on-line resource to help
museums and other institutions develop standards and best practices for
an Integrated Pest Management policy. Because many museums already have
an IPM policy, the working group has begun to gather examples of these
policies so that a comprehensive assessment can be made of these existing
policies and to provide access to this information via the IPM-WG’s
website
(
www.museumpests.net). The intent of this on-line resource is to
provide a tool to help museums and other institutions develop an IPM
policy that fits their specific needs. We are asking all interested
museums to send us a copy of their IPM policy. While you may submit it at
your convenience, we would appreciate receiving it as soon as possible to
facilitate our ongoing analysis. It is possible that we may request
examples of individual policies to be made accessible over the IPM-WG’s
website. We are aware of concerns a museum may have in relation to
permissions, credit line and anonymity, and we will certainly abide by a
museum’s wishes in regards to these issues. If you have an IPM policy you
would like to share with us, it can be sent electronically to
[log in to unmask] or by mail to Linda Klise, Peabody Museum of
Natural History, Paleobotany Division, Yale University, 170 Whitney Ave.,
P.O. Box 208118, New Haven, CT 06520-8118. We appreciate your taking the
time to send us this information.