[Nhcoll-l] plastic sleeves for bird skins

[Gali Beiner]

Hi all,

I'd like to receive feedback on bagging for storage, too. Our collections
include bird skins and small mammals (rodentia etc) which are stored in
drawers. Currently, most of them lie side by side, sometimes pretty
crowded. As a conservator, my main concerns are:

1. Insect pests - we slowly improving IPM measures, but a warm climate and
a not-yet fully fortified IPM situation create difficulties. Fogging is
difficult because we share the building with with active insect and other
research, and not fogging creates worries for curators who may then seek
insecticides. I'm wondering if bagging (=sealing in polythene) could help
improve this situation.

2. Keeping each specimen - crowded drawer "open" storage makes me, as a
conservator, worry about detached elements and tags which may be difficult
to relate to the specimen they originated from, unless I bag the specimens
in advance. Again, feedback will be welcome.

3. Dust - our region is very dusty, and dust just gets everywhere in the
end. It is difficult to keep up a cleaning regime strict enough for this,
plus I would like to avoid having to clean specimens too often (always
potentially damaging alongside the benefits).

As a side note, we have a sprinkler system in all rooms in case of fire, so
bags actually could lessen damage from water... or the plastic may yet melt
in a fire, both possibilities may be valid.

It will be very helpful to me to hear about your collections within these
three parameters in the context of bagging. Accessibility is definitely a
main concern, although as a conservator, I'm willing to sacrifice just a
little comfort in return for greater safety both for people (less contact
with toxic substances)  and specimens. Admittedly, this may be harder on
the curator. How do you and your curators feel about bagging as a storage
method?

Thanks,

Gali


Gali Beiner (ACR)
Conservator, Palaeontology Lab
National Natural History Collections
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Berman Building, Edmond J. Safra campus, Givat Ram
Jerusalem 91904, Israel
Fax. 972-2-6585785
*gali.beiner at mail.huji.ac.il <gali.beiner at mail.huji.ac.il>*
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