Cold storage

Chris McAfee <mcafeeck [at] ldschurch__org>

>As some of you know, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
>is building a new archives/library/preservation building. We want to
>build our "vaults" to the highest standard possible. We are currently
>working under the idea that we will have an area with -4 deg F cold
>storage for our most valuable items (see
><URL:http://www.wilhelm-research.com/>). However, our building
>engineers are concerned with problems of maintaining proper humidity
>levels, keeping frost out, etc.

I can understand your "engineers'" concerns, since I too am one
(1). We get paid to show concerns. But we also must come up with
economical solutions.

I doubt that you will personally find an answer suitable to you or
to your engineers or to me. So what to do? Easy. Set up some test
criteria and do a test that is suitable to you and the engineers for
the contents of a typical vault and run the test simulating the
capability of the device (freezer) you have selected or are seeking
while monitoring the objects in the vault from time-to-time!

Some 61 years education and experience says "a test is worth a
thousand expert opinions" and I found it will often cost 1/1000th
as much money.

Bud Goldstone retired, concerned, art conservation engineer


                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 19:7
                  Distributed: Thursday, July 21, 2005
                        Message Id: cdl-19-7-009
                                  ***