Coming soon.  EHS is currently moving toward the release of an electronic inventory system within SHIELD to provide additional resources to help manage chemical inventories.  Additional information and resources will be made available as this moves closer to launch, including help logging and barcoding materials.

There are steps that laboratories can begin that will accelerate the process of logging the lab’s chemical inventory and help to improve the quality and usability of the inventory for their researchers.

Planning Laboratory Sublocations

Compiling a list of locations where chemicals are stored in the laboratory and are anticipated to be stored will simplify the logging process and will make it easier to utilize the chemical inventory to help locate and track reagents.

Laboratories are encouraged to utilize a sublocation naming system that makes sense to the laboratory and to find an effective balance between high- and low-resolution definition of laboratory sublocations. These sublocation names will be loggable in the chemical inventory as a "Specific Location Note."

*See Chemical Storage Guidelines for a description of recommended Chemical Storage Groups to promote safe chemical segregation.

Preparing a site map of where the storage locations are within the laboratory will be helpful both when logging the lab’s inventory and facilitating the communication and utilization of the chemical inventory information to quickly locate reagents in the lab.  The Emergency Information Posters can be readily repurposed to create a site map that illustrates how the sublocations are organized in the laboratory.

Tips: 

1. Try to be systematic and consistent in the naming of sublocations throughout the laboratory. 
2. Give your collection of sublocations room to be modified or expanded over time.

EHS can provide assistance and guidance to help avoid some of the common pitfalls that can arise when defining sublocations.

A tab is provided on the Chemical Inventory Upload Template for compiling the sublocations associated with a laboratory space.  Laboratories that adapt EIP to provide sublocation site maps are encouraged to compile the site maps in to a single document and upload the collection to the laboratory's documents in SHIELD.

Additional Resources:

• Guide to Adapting EIPs to Chemical Storage Sublocation Site Maps (coming soon)
• Guide to Using Sublocations in the Chemical Inventory Import Template (coming soon)