Environmental monitoring standards? Which standards? Environmental monitoring standards for collection environments are a series of targets for factors such as relative humidity, temperature, light, pollutants, and pests. The targets, sometimes referred to as “ideal conditions”, are followed to avoid damage or to slow the rate of deterioration to collections. The development and agreement of environmental […]
Understanding the environment your collections are housed in is not a new concept. Curators and collectors have historically recognized that things like sun exposure, moisture levels, and heat can cause significant damage to items meant to be preserved for ages. For some time, however, the means by which collection spaces could be evaluated were limited. […]
What is “preventive conservation?” Preventive conservation is an umbrella term within the preservation world that describes actions meant to prevent damage to cultural heritage, or at least reduce the likelihood of damage (Caple 2012). Preventive conservation typically does not involve physical modification of an object. Rather, it addresses external factors like environmental conditions or how […]
