[PADG:121] Re: storage facility environmental conditions

["Susan M Knoer" <susan.marie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Whitney-

 We don't have offsite, but I did some research for a paper last year. NISO TRO1-1995 goes to 20-30%.   My notes are below, in rough form.
  I know that 50 and 30 is what we're looking at for photographic negative storage, but that'lll be retrofitted for a small area.  Those are pretty standard figures for negatives.
  Anecdotally, a lot seems to depend on whether it's new purpose-built storage, or retrofitted, which is much more difficult to maintain RH at a constant level.  That may be less of an issue in Kansas than it is here in Kentucky!

 1997  Georgia Department of Archives and History
http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/byorg/georgia/offsite.html 
68-72º F,  between 40 and 45%.

U Texas Austin, modeled on Harvard
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/exhibits/preserve/environ.html
 constant 55° plus or minus 5°,       35% plus or minus 3%
also: 1992 at http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/byorg/abbey/an/an16/an16-7/an16-709.html

Rice SC 2002
http://www.rice.edu/fondren/lsc/woodsonappendix.html
50ºF temperature with 30%

U Del 2003- not actually offsite, but closed stacks
http://www2.lib.udel.edu/Preservation/units_acts_projs/units.htm
65 degrees F and 50%

IU BLoomington
http://www.indiana.edu/~libcirc/alf/alf_faq.html#climate
50° Fahrenheit and 30%

Susan Knoer
Special Collections Reference Archivist
Ekstrom Library
University of Louisville
Louisville, KY 40292
502/852-6752  
502/852-8734 FAX
susan.marie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>> wbaker@xxxxxx 07/23/04 4:47 PM >>>
I have been asked to gather input from other research libraries that have off-site storage facilities for library materials.  What are the environmental guidelines currently in place in your facilities (where no humans normally work)?  The recommendations our facilities librarian has received from a colleague are to maintain the temperature at a constant 50 degrees and the RH at 30%.  He wonders if these are standard figures. 

Thanks for your response,
 
Whitney Baker
Conservator, University of Kansas Libraries
1425 Jayhawk Blvd., Room 135
Lawrence, KS  66045-7544
(785) 864-3429; (785) 864-5311 (fax)
wbaker@xxxxxx <mailto:wbaker@xxxxxx>
www2.lib.ku.edu/preservation