Development of Best Practices in Integrated Pest Management

Christopher A. Norris

Lisa Kronthal Elkin

Why Best Practices For IPM?

• IPM was identified as a need by around 75% of respondents to Heritage Health Index survey, 2005

Heritage Preservation & IMLS, 2005

The IPM Working Group

An ad hoc group of museum professionals dedicated to the development of pest management resources for the general museum community

Then (2000)…

American Museum of Natural History

Canadian Conservation Institute

National Museum of the American Indian

Texas Tech University

Zak Software

Now (2008)…..American Museum of Natural History

Lower East Side Tenement Museum

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

The Natural History Museum, London

National Museum of the American Indian

Historic New England National Museum of Natural History

Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale

Canadian Museum of Nature

Smithsonian Museum Support Center

U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center

Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology

Milwaukee Public Museum Canadian Conservation Institute

Swedish Museum of Natural History

Artex Fine Art Services, Inc.

New York Historical Society Denver Museum of Nature and Science

Baltimore Museum of Art Applebaum & Himmelstein

Insects Limited, Inc. Harvard University Herbaria Steritech, Inc. Yale University Science Libraries

Upstate History Alliance Zak Software Etc……

Resources

• MuseumPests.net• PestList• Wiki site• Annual Meeting

Five Thematic Areas

• Data Collection• Identification Aids• Treatments• Web Resources• Standards & Best Practices

Standards & Best Practices Subgroup

• Three main areas– Policies– Procedures– Tools

• Activities– Gather available resources from community– Vet resources and make available via web– Develop template documents for policies and procedures

What do we mean by “Standards& Best Practices”?

• Standard: A generally accepted level of attainment for use as a basis of comparison in measuring or judging performance[1]; a codification of technology or procedure developed, tested, peer-reviewed, and published by a professional society or governmental agency; to be adhered to by members and subscribers; generally must be followed closely in attention to its prescribed detail[2]

[1] Merritt, E. 2005. Standards of Stewardship – presentation at the annual meeting of The Association of College and University Museums and Galleries, Bloomington, Indiana, April 30, 2005.

[2] Hathaway, A.W., 1992. Standards, guidelines, and protocols: Keeping our house in order. AEG News, 35(1): 26-28. Cited in Cato et al. (2003), MuseumWise: Workplace Words Defined.

• Best Practices: a technique or methodology that, through experience and research, has proven to reliably lead to a desired result[1]; generally agreed upon but not legislated[2]. Commendable actions and philosophies that successfully solve problems, can be replicated, and demonstrate an awareness of standards[3].

[1] SearchSoftwareQuality.com/definitions[2] Cato et al. (2003), MuseumWise: Workplace Words Defined.[3] Merritt, E. 2005. Standards of Stewardship – presentation at the annual meeting of The Association of College and University Museums and Galleries, Bloomington, Indiana, April 30, 2005.

Defining the Audience

Who are the major players in setting procedures and policy within institutions?– Administration– Building Management– Security & Safety– Vendors (including food services, events, etc.)– Research/Collections– Exhibition & Education– Human Resources

How do we influence these institutional “supergroups” to deliver effective IPM?

• Define the role of each group in IPM• Find an incentive, or incentives• Speak to their needs

• Develop a tool to address this process

► The Grid

The Grid is not a “best practices” document…

But – it does lay out the framework of consultation that is necessary to implement an IPM strategy

And – it provided the groundwork for the Subgroup’s development of best practices documents

To download the Grid….

http://www.museumpests.net/tools/FINAL-S&BPgrid.pdf

Review

• Pulled together a set of 46 institutional IPM documents– 28 policy documents– Also training resources, procedures, etc.

• Reviewed by Subgroup for– Content– General applicability

• 10 policy documents passed by the group– Sought institutional permission– Posted on website

To download sample policies…

• http://www.museumpests.net/resources/sampledocs.html

Minimum Requirements for an IPM Policy

– Introduction– Objective/Scope– Justification– Applicability

• Overall responsibility• Other roles and responsibilities

– Training– Support/Budget– Best Practices– Monitoring– Remedial Action– Documentation– Review/Revision

Policy Template

• Uses the minimum requirements

• Provides guidance notes under each heading

• Notes were based on Grid’s recommendations for framing and targeting content

Minimum Requirements for IPM Procedures

– Introduction– Applicability

• Roles and responsibilities

– Procedure-Specific Information– Monitoring– Documentation– Review/Revision

Seven Procedure Templates

• Who is the IPM plan directed at?• Control of Access• Control of Environment• Housekeeping/Removal of Shelter• Control of Food/Live Plants/Catering• Monitoring/Data Analysis• Treatment

To Download Templates…

• http://www.museumpests.net/tools/templates.htm

The membership of IPM-WG is broad…

• IPM-WG draws from the experiences and expertise of a wide range of individuals and institutions.

• This breadth of input is vital when determining best practices

• In the longer term, it’s also essential for the development of effective standards

This has been a community-led and supported, “grass roots” process…

• IPM-WG is not affiliated with any particular institution or society

• Although AMNH has hosted all the meetings to date, individuals and their institutions meet the costs of attending

• We receive a small amount of sponsorship and our website is hosted by one of the participants, Zak Software

IPM-WG is an open group..

• A general invitation to the meeting is sent out via listservers – anyone from the community who wants to attend can do so

• The work processes are transparent – all documents are posted for comment and review on the Wiki site.

Our goals are practical…

• Throughout the process, our goals have been practical – to develop tools and resources that can be downloaded and used by any institution

IPM-WG may act as a model…

• IPM-WG provides an example of how standards and best practices can be framed in a community-led process that goes across traditional institutional and disciplinary boundaries

• The development of The Grid as a first stage enabled us to frame documents that would speak directly to the major institutional players in any IPM plan. We think this approach is widely applicable to standards and other policy development

Standards or Best Practices?

Standard: A generally accepted level of attainment for use as a basis of comparison in measuring or judging performance; a codification of technology or procedure developed, tested, peer-reviewed, and published by a professional society or governmental agency; to be adhered to by members and subscribers; generally must be followed closely in attention to its prescribed detail

Best Practices: a technique or methodology that, through experience and research, has proven to reliably lead to a desired result[1]; generally agreed upon but not legislated. Commendable actions and philosophies that successfully solve problems, can be replicated, and demonstrate an awareness of standards.

Want to know more?

• To join IPM-WG– Rachael Arenstein: rachaelarenstein@hotmail.com

• To learn more about the S&BP subgroup– Derya Golpinar: dgolpinar@tenement.org

• To join the Pest list– http://www.museumpests.net/listsignup.asp

• To download this presentation and all other documents mentioned– http://www.museumpests.net/

Acknowledgements

• Rachael Arenstein, Neil Duncan, Richard Monk• All members of IPM-WG and especially S&BP Subgroup Members:

Barbara Brown, Derya Golpinar, T. Rose Holdcraft, Emily Kaplan, Jeremy Jacobs, Gail Joice, Linda Klise, Judith Levinson, Suzanne Ryder, Mike Schwetz, Laura Smyk, Gwen Spicer, Tom Strang, Amber Tarnowski, Paul Wilkinson

• Insects Limited, Steritech, and Zak Software for support of the group and the annual meetings

• AMNH Division of Vertebrate Zoology for hosting the meetings• Alex Wild, University of Arizona, for permission to use insect images

(myrmecos.net)

The End