BIOLOGICAL RISKS IN SPECIAL COLLECTIONS
INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT
Keywords:
special collections, documentary preservation, institutional memory, integrated pest managementAbstract
This paper analyzes the development of an action plan to address wood-boring insect infestation in the Special Collections Section of an academic library, understanding documentary preservation as an informational practice related to institutional memory, risk management, and continuity of access. The objective is to systematize the technical, administrative, and logistical strategies planned to protect a culturally significant collection from biological risk. The study is an experience report with a qualitative approach, based on an institutional case study, documentary analysis, and dialogue with the literature on preservation, preventive conservation, special collections, and memory. The findings indicate that responses to biological risks in special collections require technical diagnosis, comprehensive disinfestation, cleaning, material traceability, budget planning, specialized contracting, periodic monitoring, and the institutionalization of integrated pest management routines. The study concludes that preserving special collections should be treated as a strategic dimension of information and memory management because it protects documents, material evidence, intellectual trajectories, and future conditions for research, teaching, outreach, and cultural dissemination.