"We are in the middle of construction for a new office and collection storage area and were wondering if there are any suggestion for lighting in the storage area.  At the moment we are using UV plastic tubes over the flourescent lights in the old storage area.  Is there a UV light?  We like most of you are on a very tight budget so we can't change out the whole fixtures, but needed something to protect the artifacts."  

Could you please clarify the underlined part of your post?  I'll make a few comments and hope they answer your questions.  You can get fluorescent tubes with UV-filtering applied, but the bulbs are much more expensive than the same bulbs without the filtering and the filtering gets thrown out when the bulbs are replaced.  So, the best value remains as plastic UV-filtering tubes over the bulbs as they can be re-used as long as the filtering remains effective (test periodically).  I have seen the tubes for as little as a few dollars at my local Lowes or Home Depot.  Light intensity is still important even if UV is filtered, so keep sensitive types of materials sufficiently far from the light fixtures to maintain recommended light levels.  Recall previous discussions on this list about the importance of CRI (color rendering index), but this is less of an issue for storage.  Hope this helps.

Marc

American Conservation Consortium, Ltd.
     4 Rockville Road
     Broad Brook, CT 06016
     www.conservator.com 
     860-386-6058 

*Collections Preservation Consultation
*Conservation Assessments & Surveys
*Environmental Monitoring & Low-Tech Control
*Moisture Management Solutions
*Collections in Historic Structures
*Collections Care Grant Preparation
*Conservation Treatment of:
     Furniture
     Painted Wood
     Horse-Drawn Vehicles
     Architectural Interiors 

Marc A. Williams, President
     MS in Art Conservation, Winterthur Museum Program
     Former Chief Wooden Object Conservator, Smithsonian Institution
     Fellow, American Institute for Conservation (AIC)


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Debra Loguda-Summers 
  To: [log in to unmask] 
  Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2009 2:18 PM
  Subject: [MUSEUM-L] Lighting question


  Hi,


  Thanks in advance for any suggestions.




  Debra Loguda-Summers, Curator
  Still National Osteopathic Museum and International Center for Osteopathic History
  800 West Jefferson
  Kirksville, MO 63501
  Phone: 660 626 2359 
  Fax: 660 626 2984 
  Toll Free: 1 866 626 ATSU Ext. 2359
  [log in to unmask]
  www.atsu.edu/museum
   
  The Mission of the Still National Osteopathic Museum is to collect, preserve, and make available artifacts and related materials to communicate the history and philosophy about the osteopathic principles of mind, body and spirit to a global audience. 




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