Storage of photographic materials

I am part of the photographic services team at the state art gallery
in Melbourne, Australia. The collection consists of in excess of
70,000 works, ranging from paintings, sculptures, decorative arts,
to photography and costumes and textiles. The gallery is about to be
refurbished and our department is responsible for the transparency
and negative archive. This consists of some 6000 5X4 transparencies
and at least double that number of black and white negatives. We are
not required to store photographic prints. We need to have access to
the negatives at all times as the files are used on a daily basis.

In the refurbished space, we have requested a frost free room in
which to store our archives. I have read some  literature about
archival storage facilities for photographic materials, and as far as
I can ascertain temperature should be around 10 deg C with relative
humidity at between 20% and 30%. The designated room is about 5
metres by 3.5 metres, and the architects intend to wrap the whole
area with 100 mm thick insulation panels. Above the ceiling the
cooling unit, and presumably the dehumidifying unit, are to be
installed. Inside this room, free-standing metal furniture will
house the transparencies and negatives. I would appreciate any input
from staff at other institutions who have installed similar areas in
recent years.

Helen K. Skuse
Photographer
National Gallery of Victoria

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 12:57
                 Distributed: Tuesday, January 12, 1999
                       Message Id: cdl-12-57-013
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