General Best Practices For Museum Storage

By Charles Smith


Museums are the reservoirs of history. They are tasked with a great challenge. This challenge is essentially taking care of the valuable representations of present and current artifacts produced by society. They preserve knowledge of past and present civilizations. As they continue to acquire more items though, museum storage becomes a necessity.

As time progresses these relics increase in number but the need for their preservation increases. This creates an inevitable problem for curators and other museum staff as they must find space for archiving. In fact, for many of today's museums, only a fraction of their actual collection is displayed at any given time. The remainder are kept in storage and rotated to the display area periodically.

Two main factors that museum managers consider when looking for appropriate storage space are security and suitability. The location selected must be impenetrable so that thieves are kept at bay. It is just as important, or even more so, that the conditions within the space be suitable for the preservation of the items to be stored.

The condition within the facility is one of the primary concerns of curators who seek holding space. For documents that are very old, the presence of air pollutants or high levels of oxygen may mean deterioration in quality and ultimately destruction. For these items, the space must be sealed to prevent the introduction of oxygen.

There are situations though, in which it is just not possible to adjust atmospheric conditions to suit each piece being stored. A great solution for this situation is to place each piece in its own containment unit. These containment units are typically made of glass and transparent. They allow for each piece to be stored in it's own ideal environment and are very handy in cases where pieces have varying needs.

These treasures of history stored in museums are very valuable and must be protected from thieves. The area in which they are kept must be properly secured to make it impenetrable. Technology today offers many options ranging from security cameras and motion senor alarms to tracking devices implanted on or within the pieces.

Yet another crucial factor for these types of spaces is size. Since museums are likely to continue acquire pieces as time passes, they must think long term. This means considering spaces that offer sufficient accommodation for projected growth in artifact collection.

The job of a curator is indeed an important one. Not only does the job require meticulous attention to detail in displaying important items but also great care in the preservation of the catalogues that will inevitably be collected over time. Curators who implement the internationally and locally accepted best practices for the storing of museum items ensure that society's precious relics survive the ravages of time.




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