Hi Miriam, I thought that I was reading about my own institution when I started your posting. We are doing the same thing. Luckily, our collections are currently in 1 wing of the building and it is not suppost to be effected while the new section is being built. Our new exhibits - and visitors- will then go to the new section, our collections will move upstairs to a part of the old section that will have then been renovated for collections storage then the old section where collections are currently stored will be renovated for offices. It took a lot of preplanning and I still wonder if we can pull the timing off but when they asked me to draw up a budget for storing off-site for several year over 100,000 items, I just said "no. It isn't even an option and I don't have time to do an exercise in futility. There is no reason to even think of storage so why bother." I know this will not be business as usual and I certainly don't know what I will do with thousands of items coming off current display but I am determined to manage the situation as best I can. We have no disaster plan in place for objects so I have started a fire under all who need to be involved in that and set a deadline of June 30 to have a draft ready to present to our governing board at their July quarterly meeting. Then at least AAM and ASTEC reaccreditation committees can't say I haven't tried. I can't afford to or even want to package all the objects so I will weatherstrip the openings to the storage area, get everything up off the floor as we are in the basement and have water pipes running overhead, put heavy plastic drop clothes over storage cases, have wet-vacs, fans and dehumidifiers ready or spotted, know where I can get refrigerated trucks at a moment's notice (especially at 2 a.m.)---- and pray that we don't have a fire because much of our collections are stored in homemade wooden cases. I would appreciate it if you would share any good ideas with me as they come in, Good luck, Carole DeFord Cranbrook Institute of Science Bloomfield Hills, Michigan ______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________ Subject: protecting collections during construction Author: Museum discussion list <[log in to unmask]> at CEC-INTERNET Date: 4/8/96 11:31 AM I am the registrar at a small/medium historical society. We will be breaking ground for an expansion to our facility this summer, with full construction starting by August. Does anyone have any advice, horror stories, or suggested reading for me about how to protect our collections during construction? Moving everything off-site is not an option due to financial constraints. The collection is varied, including archives, library materials, textiles, jewelry, framed art, sculpture, furniture, and all types of three-dimensional artifacts of everyday life. Responses are welcome on or off list, and I would be happy to summarize off-list postings at some point. I look forward to varied and helpful comments, guaranteed on Museum-L! _________________________________________ Miriam Albahari [log in to unmask] Jewish Historical Society of Maryland "Miracles sometimes occur, but one has to work terribly hard for them." -Chaim Weizmann