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 ideal condition is a crucial factor in the selection of any ancient relic storage unit. Under certain conditions artifacts will deteriorate in quality and eventually be destroyed. In spaces that are too humid, for instance, the moisture can cause swelling or contraction, leading to the destruction of the piece. Elevated levels of oxygen and air pollutants may have a destructive effect paper and other material

In some cases it is impractical or impossible to adjust the atmosphere in the entire space. In these cases there is a potential alternative. The individual pieces being protected can be encased in such a manner that their immediate environment is ideal for preservation. This is similar to what obtains in many museums today as certain artifacts are encased in transparent containers that offer them protection while ensuring that they remain visible to the visitors.

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.

In addition to looking into security and space quality, museum curators must consider size when searching for or making plans to erect holding spaces. This is necessary because the very nature of their work means that the number of pieces being managed will grow. Plans must be put in place to accommodate the future acquisitions.

There is no doubt that curators and museum managers carry out a crucial role. They are tasked with ensuring that the great relics produced by the civilizations of the past present and future remain secure. Taking care of holding spaces is just one of the many technical tasks that they must handle in ensuring that they fulfill their duties.




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