This book elaborates on different aspects of the decision making process concerning the management of climate risk in museums and historic houses. The goal of this publication is to assist collection managers and caretakers by providing information that will allow responsible decisions about the museum indoor climate to be made. The focus is not only on the outcome, but also on the equally important process that leads to that outcome. The different steps contribute significantly to the understanding of the needs of movable and immovable heritage. The decision making process to determine the requirements for the museum indoor climate includes nine steps: Step 1. The process to make a balanced decision starts by clarifying the decision context and evaluating what is important to the decision maker by developing clear objectives. In Step 2 the value of all heritage assets that are affected by the decision are evaluated and the significance of the building and the movable collection is made explicit. Step 3. The climate risks to the moveable collection are assessed. Step 4: Those parts of the building that are considered valuable and susceptible to certain climate conditions are identified. Step 5. The human comfort needs for visitors and staff are expressed. Step 6: To understand the indoor climate, the building physics are explored. Step 7. The climate specifications derived from step 3 to 5 are weighed and for each climate zone the optimal climate conditions are specified. Step 8: Within the value framework established in Step 1, the options to optimize the indoor climate are considered and selected. Step 9: All options to reduce the climate collection risks are evaluated by the objectives established in Step 1.

There is a common misconception that collections management in museums is a set of rote procedures or technical practices that follow universal standards of best practice. This volume recognises collections management as a political, critical and social project, involving considerable intellectual labour that often goes unacknowledged within institutions and in the fields of museum and heritage studies. Collections Management as Critical Museum Practice brings into focus the knowledges, value systems, ethics and workplace pragmatics that are foundational for this work. Rather than engaging solely with cultural modifications, such as Indigenous care practices, the book presents local knowledge of place and material which is relevant to how collections are managed and cared for worldwide. Through discussion of varied collection types, management activities and professional roles, contributors develop a contextualised reflexive practice for how core collections management standards are conceptualised, negotiated and enacted. Chapters span national museums in Brazil and Uganda to community-led heritage work in Malaysia and Canada; they explore complexities of numbering, digitisation and description alongside the realities of climate change, global pandemics and natural disasters. The book offers a new definition of collections management, travelling from what is done to care for collections, to what is done to care for collections and their users. Rather than ‘use’ being an end goal, it emerges as a starting point to rethink collections work.

The Sustainable Museum is the first book to outline a coherent strategy for the direction of museums, as it relates to sustainability in the museum and heritage sector. Arguing that museums must place sustainability at the centre of all their activities, if they are to become key actors with a clear societal role, Garthe considers the issues that museums will likely face as they take on their new roles. Presenting case studies from a wide range of museums around the world, the book considers different ways of implementing sustainability in different types and sizes of institutions. Whilst the book clearly outlines the need for change, it also provides guidance about how to change. Garthe does this by considering specific concepts and approaches to sustainability in relation to the different aspects of museum operations. The book includes a hands-on manual for implementing sustainability management in a museum, whilst also considering the challenges practitioners will encounter and considering what the future of the sustainable museum might look like. The Sustainable Museum will be essential reading for museum and heritage professionals around the globe. The book will also be of interest to academics and students engaged in the study of museums, arts and cultural management, business administration, change management or sustainable development.

Microclimate for Cultural Heritage: Measurement, Risk Assessment, Conservation, Restoration, and Maintenance of Indoor and Outdoor Monuments, Third Edition, presents the latest on microclimates, environmental issues and the conservation of cultural heritage. It is a useful treatise on microphysics, acting as a practical handbook for conservators and specialists in physics, chemistry, architecture, engineering, geology and biology who focus on environmental issues and the conservation of works of art. It fills a gap between the application of atmospheric sciences, like the thermodynamic processes of clouds and dynamics of planetary boundary layer, and their application to a monument surface or a room within a museum. Sections covers applied theory, environmental issues and conservation, practical utilization, along with suggestions, examples, common issues and errors. - Connects theory to practice with clear illustrations, useful examples, and case studies - Covers practical issues, e.g. rising damp, moulds, and pests, indoor heating, thermal comfort, green lighting technology, performing field surveys - Presents the latest standards for measuring cultural assets and their environment - Discusses climate change and indoor - outdoor potential scenarios, including sea-level rise

This new and extensively revised second edition offers an international perspective on archives management, providing authoritative guidance relevant to collections-based repositories and to organizations responsible for managing their own institutional archives. Written in clear language with lively examples, Archives: Principles and practices introduces core archival concepts, explains best-practice approaches and discusses the central activities that archivists need to know to ensure the documentary materials in their charge are cared for as effectively as possible. Topics addressed include: core archival principles and conceptsarchival history and the evolution of archival theoriesthe nature and diversity of archival materials and institutionsthe responsibilities and duties of the archivistissues in the management of archival institutionsthe challenges of balancing access and privacy in archival servicebest practice principles and strategic approaches to central archival tasks such as acquisition, preservation, reference and accessdetailed comparison of custodial, fonds-oriented approaches and post-custodial, functional approaches to arrangement and description. Discussion of digital archives is woven throughout the book, including consideration of the changing role of the archivist in the digital age. In recasting her book to address the impact of digital technologies on records and archives, Millar offers us an archival manual for the twenty-first century. This book will be essential reading for archival practitioners, archival studies students and professors, librarians, museum curators, local authorities, small governments, public libraries, community museums, corporations, associations and other agencies with archival responsibility.

The Museum Environment, Second Edition deals with the behavior and conservation of the various classes of museum exhibit. This book is divided into six sections that provide museum specifications for conservation. This text highlights the three contributing factors in the deterioration and decay of museum exhibits, namely light, humidity, and air pollution. Each section describes the mechanism of deterioration and the appropriate “preventive conservation . The changes in this edition from the previous include the electronic hygrometry, fluorescent lamps, buffered cases, air conditioning systems, and data logging and control in historic buildings. This book is of great value to conservation researchers and museum workers.