Home Environmental Monitoring Products/Services Online Store Downloads Contact IPI
Home > Projects > Best Practices for Preservation Environments

best practices for preservation environments

Overview     |     Background     |     Project Outcomes     |     Conclusion

Overview

In 2006, the New York Public Library (NYPL) received a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Research & Development grant, entitled Developing Data Models and Best Practices for Diagnosis and Improvement of Preservation Environments. For this two-year project, NYPL partnered with the Image Permanence Institute (IPI) to define the best practices for monitoring, evaluating, and optimizing storage conditions from an environmental management perspective. The project began in January 2007 and concluded in December 2008.

View a demonstration video about the Best Practices project.

The “Best Practices” project focused on several aspects of managing preservation environments, such as:

MyClimateData.com, a web-based preservation management system created by IPI, was expanded to meet the needs of NYPL. Once information about NYPL’s collections had been entered into the account and NYPL’s environmental data had been uploaded, the NYPL staff reviewed the functionality of the website. Changes were made according to NYPL’s requests and NYPL’s Field Service Librarian held workshops to teach NYPL staff about the website. Using MyClimateData during the Best Practices project facilitated communication between NYPL staff and helped establish a meaningful collaboration between the Preservation Management Team.  

For this project, data collection was expanded to 98 monitoring points within NYPL’s research libraries, including locations in the Humanities & Social Sciences Library, the Science, Industry, and Business Library, the Library for the Performing Arts, Rose Annex Building, and the Schomburg Center. Adding to data from previous projects, the Best Practices project culminated in ten years of continuous data collection.

Four to five data loggers were placed in the HVAC systems that produced the environment of NYPL’s monitored storage and display areas. This data was used to analyze HVAC performance and report on the potential improvements to optimize each system.  In addition, the configuration of each mechanical system was documented in consultation with facility managers.

Initial observations on data from storage locations and mechanical systems were documented after six months. A more thorough analysis was completed when one full year of data was available. Areas with a potential for improvement in preservation quality were reviewed in detail by the project team to identify the necessary action steps and begin to implement the solution. It became clear that additional research into the mechanical systems (outside the scope of this grant) was needed; NYPL provided funding to the project consultants Herzog/Wheeler & Associates to complete this work. This resulted in a series of recommendations for reducing material decay and improving preservation quality of several NYPL locations.

IPI strongly believes the most effective way to analyze the environment and to achieve improvements is by establishing a meaningful collaboration between a Preservation Management Team. With IPI’s guidance, NYPL developed a team of NYPL environmental management “stakeholders”, including staff in administration, facilities, preservation, and curatorial departments. Each group offered their expertise to determine and negotiate an appropriate solution.


Preservation, Collections & Facilities


NYPL participants met with project team leaders of NYPL and IPI, received background information and project updates, and contributed input and suggestions through the NYPL Assistant Field Service Librarian.

Background

The accomplishments of the “Best Practices” project are best understood in the broader context of IPI’s experience researching the role of the environment in preservation. Over ten years ago, IPI began predictive accelerated-aging experiments on plastics, dyes, gelatin, and paper. IPI’s data added to the scientific consensus that chemical reactions underlie the principal forms of deterioration affecting library and archives collections. These experiments revealed and quantified the profound influence of environmental conditions on the rate of chemical change. Researchers at IPI began to look for ways in which this scientific knowledge could be applied in everyday preservation management.

In 1995, IPI proposed an algorithm for what would become the first Preservation Metric, the Time-Weighted Preservation Index (TWPI). TWPI integrates temperature and relative humidity (RH) values to estimate the rate of chemical decay in organic materials. TWPI represents the effects of a changing, dynamic environment as a single numerical value, quantifying the cumulative impact of the environment to retard or promote chemical change.  With NEH funding, IPI then developed a temperature and relative humidity datalogger specifically for preservation use—the PEM® or Preservation Environment Monitor®—that incorporated the TWPI metric. IPI also designed associated software for data analysis (Climate Notebook®).

The Optimization Project

The recent Best Practices project evolved from a previous Andrew W. Mellon Foundation funded grant, Optimizing Collection Life in Cultural Institutions designed to field test the PEM® and Climate Notebook® software and IPI’s approach to preservation management. IPI worked intensively with research partners at the New York Public Library and the Library of Congress from 1997 through 2005, using these tools to assess collection storage conditions. The goal was to improve preservation of the collections by quantifying the effects of the environment, investigating mechanical system capabilities, and taking action to optimize preservation quality.

Over the course of the Optimizing project, IPI continued to learn how to derive meaning from temperature and relative humidity (RH) data and to refine the Climate Notebook software. The project resulted in an understanding of the three major types of decay in collection materials: chemical decay (rate of natural aging), biological decay (risk of mold growth), and physical decay (mechanical stresses such as warping, tearing, or delamination of layers). To address each of these types of decay, IPI developed what would be known as the Preservation Metrics, algorithms which use the temperature and relative humidity data to calculate the impact of the environment on the processes of decay. IPI had previously developed the Time Weighted Preservation Index (TWPI) to describe the rate of chemical decay in organic materials; the Mold Risk Factor (MRF) was developed to assess the risk of biological decay, and % Equilibrium Moisture Content (%EMC) and % Dimensional Change (%DC) were developed to assess the risk of physical decay. These Preservation Metrics offered cultural institutions an entirely new way manage the environment for preservation. Using the new tools of the Preservation Metrics, preservation staff could identify the specific types of decay threatening the collections and quantify the severity of the deterioration risks. The Preservation Metrics provided standardized analysis, a valuable resource to objectively compare the quality of different storage locations or to track the progress of the environment of individual locations.

The Optimizing project also investigated the relationship between the outdoor climate and the indoor climate experienced by the collections. By studying the graphs and trends of outdoor and indoor data, it was possible to observe the how the mechanical systems modify the outdoor air to produce the indoor climate. For example, comparison of the outdoor and indoor the dew point temperatures illustrated the mechanical systems’ capacity to humidify or dehumidify the air. The approach developed in the Optimizing project involved analyzing mechanical systems with a holistic view of system capabilities and making existing systems function as well as they can.

Research and analysis of the Optimization Project determined that the summertime dew point is the greatest challenge to achieving an environment that does not promote chemical decay (in other words, a good TWPI). The key to slowing the rate of chemical decay is the ability of mechanical systems to maintain simultaneously cool and dry conditions during the summer—which can be achieved only by keeping dew point temperatures low.



Project Outcomes


The Best Practices Project

Data collection and analysis in the initial Optimization project was limited to the Humanities & Social Sciences Library. During the “Best Practices” project, data collection was extended to all NYPL research libraries. In addition, an IPI-designed, web-based system for managing environmental data and collection information, myClimateData.com, was incorporated and expanded to meet the needs of NYPL.

During these two research and development projects, the research partners experienced both successes and difficulties. The development and application of the Preservation Metrics is one important success, allowing collection care staff to quantify the environment’s effects on collection materials. As a result, stewardship can now be documented and managed; results can be demonstrated and measured. Development of a broader understanding of mechanical system functions—shared and reviewed by both preservation and facilities people—was a benefit that led to realistic remedial actions that could be monitored and assessed for their impact. Another important achievement was the development of a process to facilitate a shared understanding of preservation concerns, mechanical system capabilities, and the experience and knowledge of all stakeholders (collections care staff, facilities managers, and administrators). Working together on these issues allowed staff to develop more realistic expectations, make more effective decisions, and use time more efficiently.

During group presentations of the website, participants agreed that myClimateData was a great tool for assessing the environmental conditions and creating a strategy to implement the needed changes. Facility managers had some apprehension that other users would have the expectation that there was a quick and easy remedy for any climate problem illustrated by the data. This is one of the reasons why ongoing discussion and communication between the stakeholder groups is very important.

Many NYPL project members were interested in the option to overlay several datasets on one graph; in particular, project members want to see the outdoor data for Central Park represented on the same graph as data from their monitored locations. This functionality exists in other IPI software, but has not yet been incorporated in myClimateData. IPI plans to add this functionality in the near future.

The challenges of the project were also significant. No one anticipated the scale or scope of the project’s approach. Both the Optimizing and Best Practices projects utilized an approach to environmental management that goes far beyond observing target temperature and RH ranges and then reacting to deviations. Preservation staff did not have much knowledge of existing mechanical systems or their capabilities. Prior to this project, interactions between the preservation managers and facilities managers on storage conditions were limited to responding to emergencies and radical deviations from established temperature and RH norms.

The interaction and communication between these two departments, Preservation and Facilities, presented another challenge to the success of the project.  In many ways, the facilities culture and its operating patterns conflicted with the optimizing approach. In the facilities management world, the time to think about the desired climate conditions is when the building is built or renovated. At that point, engineers specify the correct equipment and, from then on, it’s a matter of maintaining the design conditions and fixing malfunctions. The facilities culture is a problem-solving and action-oriented one. There is little time for study and analysis of trends. Solutions generally involve purchasing new equipment; not analyzing old equipment and making it do something different.

Another reason the optimizing approach was difficult to reconcile with the facilities culture is that operators rightly fear that set-point changes will disrupt the delicate balance of human comfort. It became apparent that a precondition for success was to find ways to deal with human comfort complaint calls in advance and to avoid having them become a problem for the building operators. It was also clear that getting consensus and permission across all lines of authority within the facilities organization to experiment with operating patterns can be very cumbersome and time-consuming.

In spite of these difficulties, a successful collaboration was established between the NYPL preservation and facilities staff. Once the facilities staff realized that their expertise was appreciated, they were committed to working with the preservation team. Preservation realized that members of the facilities staff were their professional allies. Communication between the two departments improved and evolved into a successful working partnership.


Conclusion


Recent projects undertaken by the New York Public Library and the Image Permanence Institute resulted in a broader understanding of the NYPL the storage environment, the function and capability of mechanical systems, and their impact on the preservation of the important collections held by NYPL research libraries. Key players within Preservation, Curatorial, Facilities and Operations, and Library Administration made significant contributions to improving preservation quality and have a well-defined process in place to continue working together to collect, analyze, and act on environmental data.

Working together, the New York Public Library and the Image Permanence Institute have been extremely successful in developing technology and approaches for preservation management in libraries, archives, and museums. Their research and experience have established a new set of Best Practices for Diagnosis and Improvement of Preservation Environments to be used by collection care specialists and facility managers.  The promise of the technology developed through this project is enormous. We are very grateful to The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities for their continuing support and encouragement.