The Importance of Continuous Environmental Monitoring for Document Conservation

Losing valuable documents can bring your organization to a halt, yet some organizations overlook document recovery when creating a business continuity plan. Universities, libraries, galleries, and law offices can benefit from monitoring the environmental conditions of their spaces to help protect their materials as well as their staff and patrons from poor air quality, excessive humidity, and water leaks.

Efficient Real-Time Climate Monitoring

Monitoring climate conditions can help stakeholders see potential issues before they turn into costly or devastating impacts to a collection or building. Systems that continuously collect and aggregate real-time data from multiple spaces can make the process very efficient. Data loggers require a lot of handling and processing making it laborious for staff, difficult to glean insight, and by the time a problem is discovered, the effects might have already been realized. Temperature and humidity are fundamental parameters to track. However, there is technology available that allows users to monitor these alongside other important environmental factors such as indoor air quality, volatile organic compounds, dust and particulates. Facilities can also monitor water leaks which are particularly critical in low-traffic and high-risk areas especially during offseasons like summer breaks.

Insights and Alerts for Better Indoor Spaces

When shopping for monitoring solutions, look for devices that provide easy to read dashboards and customizable real-time alerts. Also search for useful reporting features and microclimate control options. Often, data will be used by stakeholders at different levels and for different reasons. For example, a facility manager might need alerts for basement water leaks while a gallery manager might want a history of conditions overtime to prove their gallery is being managed properly for an incoming exhibition. Moreover, the curator might require tighter temperature and humidity control for special items than what the house system is capable of. In this situation, consider technology that can be connected to temporary climate control equipment like dehumidification, filtration, ventilation, and heating/cooling. Together, the system can actively produce and maintain a spec without capital expediture or wasted energy usage.

1. Monitoring of temperature and humidity begin at a historic artifact museum.
2. Monitoring reveals humidity levels are out of bounds. Extra dehumidification equipment is brought in to help control conditions.
3. Humidity stabilizes with help of climate control equipment.

Contact us today to learn more about how we can help your organization prevent damage to documents or restore them in case of any unforeseen events.