Understand Thy Environment

First,do no harm.

When a new collection arrives at your door,I’m sure that,like me,  you pull out all the stops. A brass band,ticker-tape parade,and full reception are just the tip of the iceberg! Before that happens,though,one of the more persuasive arguments to potential donors is that “we can take care of it better than you can–we will organize it,make it accessible to patrons,and store it in an appropriate environment.”I hear archivists (including myself) say variations on this all the time. But what does “appropriate environment”really mean?

Something that we may not think about enough as archivists until the need becomes overwhelming,that’s what. What is the best and most appropriate storage environment for our collections? How is that decision made,and how much money should we spend on it? How often should we reassess the storage situation,and what is the best way to ask for more resources–like shelving,cases,racks,compact storage,and other solutions?

Maintaining a proper climate with respect to temperature and relative humidity can be difficult,  not just in historic buildings,but also in newer construction. Do you monitor your environment? What is the best way to do so? It seems like a pain,but keep this in mind:Storage environment can have the largest overall impact on your entire collection of any preservation activities that you may employ. By keeping temperature and relative humidity stable and within the range that is most appropriate for the materials,you extend the life of the entire collection. By the same token,large swings and an uncontrolled climate can seriously affect your collection–potentially enabling mold growth or embrittlement on either end of the moisture spectrum,with a lot of different horror stories in between.

Two weeks ago,I attended a conference at the Union League in Philadelphia that was really useful on a practical level. A Space Odyssey:Storage Strategies for Cultural Collections was sponsored by the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts,and the speaker presentations are available in PDF form on their website here.

Some of the information most useful to me included:

•  architect Walt Crimm’s session,“Deconstructing Museum Storage:The Essentials”where he discussed passive risk reduction,designing for suites of spaces that serve the same function,and an evaluation of active vs. passive energy sources in building management and maintenance.
• Crimm’s third session,”Space Planning:Maximizing Storage Spaces,”where he talked about a flexible collections management zone and keeping stuff out of storage space in order to minimize collection risk and fluctuations
• architect Peter Herzog on “Sustaining Optimal Building Environments”and “Understanding HVAC”systems–these were among the most practical and useful sessions I’ve attended in awhile. I can’t emphasize enough how useful this was from an “everyday maintenance issue”standpoint.
• James Reilly’s “Storage Environments:The Big Picture”was a great discussion of temperature/relative humidity,decay,chemical change and environment. I think that he gave the most straightforward description of dewpoint and moisture’s role in active change of physical/mechanical properties of organic materials that I’ve ever heard.

I’ve spent much of the past year trying to regulate the climate in our building,particularly in the stacks and vault areas,and it’s not always an easy proposition. Kudos to the CCAHA for putting together this practical,useful conference for people that deal with historical collections and issues of storage–you hit this one out of the park!