Gretchen,

There are several issues with outsourcing or contracting an outside
firm for services that will have intimate contact with exhibit and
collections spaces.

First and foremost, security. Often custodial services is low paid and
complete background checks may not be done for those personel. We had
one instance at the musuem that I worked at where a conservator had a
purse stolen by one on the contracted custodians.

Second, these folks need to be trained and monitored as to not
handling collections and more careful use of floor vacuuams and
buffers, because often those machines will be slammed into
architectural features or chair legs, for example. Or they will handle
obejcts and artifacts to "dust".

Third, you need to have a conservator apporved list of cleaners and
supplies that are permitted to be used - do not allow them to use
whatever cleaner that they want to.

There also tends to be a lot of turn-over in custodial positions and
often just when we had developed a relationship with one person they'd
be either re-assigned or had left their jobs for another situation.

In my opinion it is actually better to have your own staff do this for
all of the above concerns as well as having a long-term relationship
with them.

Cheers!
Dave

David Harvey
Conservator
Los Angeles, California



On 5/5/06, Gretchen Goodell <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Dear Colleagues,
>
> We are about to open a new museum and education center and are exploring
> a variety of options for cleaning the spaces. One option under
> consideration is outsourcing this work. Do you know of any museums that
> have outsourced the cleaning of galleries and how well it worked? Do any
> companies specialize in this?
>
> Thank you in advance for any advice you may have.
>
> Kind regards,
> Gretchen Goodell
> Assistant Curator
> George Washington's Mount Vernon
>
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