Pests in the archive

Pests are a constant problem for archives.  In West Texas, we have all sorts of creepy, crawling things. My house is a second home for scorpions.  Once I had to dump a tarantula out of my boot.  My foot and he wouldn’t fit together. I must admit that I have never faced tarantulas or scorpions at work, but on the first week I was at one of the universities a staff member walked in holding a large dead rat by the tail.  Following some construction outside of the library, said rat had apparently followed some plumbing into the basement where the archives are stored and it had been trapped there.  Did I mention that was my first week on the job at that university? To be fair the rat was dead and that never happened again.  Even premier institutions have to be proactive when it comes to pests.  I worked for one of the best museums in Texas.  This museum does everything right, but still I walked into my photo lab there and saw a huge, triple huge roach.  It was at least an inch and a half long.  Those things are fast too. I have no idea to where it ran off.  Several glue traps later and an exterminator and that was that.  Another one of the libraries had mice, dead ones by the time they found them.  One had even thoughtfully died in a trash beg.  Apparently they had gotten themselves trapped upstairs on the second floor somehow.  Now you know why libraries try to limit food and drink particularly to their archives.  Lots of things like to eat or chew paper. Two of the libraries have coffee shops within the facility.  This new trend in academic libraries was adopted to encourage students to use the facilities.  It does work.  Both libraries are busy, but it is a trade-off.  The third academic library limits food to the first floor foyer and any staff food is kept in metal cabinets or a refrigerator.  Since the archives are on the second floor that has been a good compromise so far.  At least all of the glue traps in the archives have remained empty.  That reminds me that I need to tell the third library that they need glue traps in their archives. 

Aside from people and food, one of the biggest contributors to pests entering an archive or library is through the collections donated to the facility.  Often these materials have been kept in a garage or attic where anything can move in and set up housekeeping.  One of the libraries had at least two collections that had been rescued from the trash.  Any new collections should be isolated from the other library materials until they can be inspected or even fumigated.  The Southwest Collection at Texas Tech has a separate room where material is fumigated prior to accessioning into the collection.  Sometimes material can be placed in a freezer if mold is the problem.  Many insect eggs can be killed this way too.  Most institutions don’t have separate facilities, but they should be encouraged to find an alternative to immediately bringing donations directly into the collections otherwise pests will always be a major problem.  Sometimes institutions listen and sometimes they don’t.