Denny,
It’s hard to say without seeing the space but if it’s the best you have it may make a good space. From the sounds of it the room is separate from
the room containing the computer equipment, if that’s the case, great. If it’s in the same room, just in an unused portion I’d be concerned about access. Who’s accessing the computer equipment? Are they being supervised? Will you have knowledge? Even if you
control access, if someone needs to get in there will you stand watch or will they be left alone in there? If would not be beyond the realm of imagination for a curious IT staff member to go poking through boxes of collection items. What happens if the HVAC
stop working but the computer equipment is still running? What backup systems do they have as the temperature is going to skyrocket? Have they had issues with the HVAC in the past? There is also the concern of fire if the equipment overheats or shorts out,
though this would less of a concern as computers don’t spontaneous burst into flames that often. As I said, if the room is next door, then this isn’t nearly the issue as long as you’re able to control access to the necessary staff members.
Climate control in an office or computer style environment is certainly better than most homes but the standards for these are not necessarily the same as museum standards. Office style systems tend to have a much greater range of “okay” zones
and humidity is often lower and even less strict. It doesn’t matter for an office environment if the temperature goes up and down by 5c or so a day but this isn’t the greatest for collections. The same with humidity, if the environmental system is set to a
minimum of 20% but jumps up to 35% during the day that may be an issue. Then you need to find out, what are the settings and ranges? For a mixed collection 20c and 50% is good, but the room may be set to something totally different. I’d put a datalogger in
there if you could and check out the fluctuations. How much does it vary per day, per week, per month? Now if your other option is a drafty shed out back then this is obviously a better option regardless. You can always add humidification, dehumidification,
heat, or sometimes cooling.
It certainly could be a great space, just some things to think about.
William Shepherd
Collections Officer
Swift Current Museum
44 Robert Street West
Swift Current, Saskatchewan
S9H 4M9
Phone: 306-778-4815
Fax: 306-778-4818
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Denny Adcock
Sent: Wednesday, April 27, 2016 11:24 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [MUSEUM-L] Artifact storage
Are there any known problems associated with long term storage of artifacts, prints, stringed instruments, costumes, etc. in rooms adjacent to a large computer data storage area. The room was built in the 1970's to handle the computer
technology of the day but now, as technology have led to smaller devices there is a large amount of free space. It seems a good idea as the temp/humidity demands of both the computer devices and the archives are similar enough to be manageable but am wondering
if anyone else might be in a similar space or know of any dangers that I'm not aware of.
Thanks in advance.
To unsubscribe from the MUSEUM-L list, click the following link:
http://home.ease.lsoft.com/scripts/wa-HOME.exe?SUBED1=MUSEUM-L&A=1
To unsubscribe from the MUSEUM-L list, click the following link:
http://home.ease.lsoft.com/scripts/wa-HOME.exe?SUBED1=MUSEUM-L&A=1