Museum Environments
I am very comfortable and familiar with museum monitoring processes, and able to usefully apply the data collected to inform collections preservation decisions. This includes both environment and pest monitoring, which I have done independently at institutions including Harpers Ferry NHP and the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History. I am experienced using multiple monitors, including PEM2, HOBO, and hygrothermographs, as well as eClimate Notebook software, to record and manage storage environments. My experience with IPM and pest management includes pest collection and identification, and the analysis of resulting data to locate and understand emerging pest problems.
In the Spring of 2017 I performed an environmental monitoring project in the Anthropology collections at CUMNH. The final report of the project makes determinations on the efficacy of two types of museum cabinets to mitigate the collections environment. It also required research into ideal museum environments for specific types of collections, an understanding of the relationship between temperature, dew point, and relative humidity, and the ability to utilize PEM2, HOBO, and hygrothermograph environmental dataloggers.
I was responsible for maintaining a regular routine of IPM, environmental monitoring, and housekeeping at CUMNH. As part of this, I maintained the records of the data, and cleaned the archived data to correct errors that had made it difficult to use. I conducted and designed a special monitoring project to determine the source of an infestation in the ceramics room. I became skilled at visualizing and analyzing the data in useful ways to support collections decisions, including the write-up for a grant.