Connecting to Collections Care

I am a graduate student currently taking a Museum Administration course, and one of my assignments involves preparing a plan for the care and handling of 2-D works on paper that are unframed. The scope of the project involves moving works (currently in cabinets) from a cramped archives which may or may not have exit points to just move the whole, packed cabinet. I would greatly value your guidance or recommended resources as I work through this project.

In particular, I am hoping to learn:

• Best practices for handling and temporary storage of unframed paper items.

• Environmental or housing considerations I should emphasize (supports, folders, or encapsulation options).

• Any current guidance documents, toolkits, or case studies you recommend for small museums working with limited resources.

I would be grateful for any direction you could provide toward publications, standards, or training opportunities that address these topics.

Thank you very much for your time and for the work PAC/FAIC does to support the preservation community.

With appreciation,
Peggy Cwiakala

USC Museum Management Program

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Peggy Cwiakala, MLIS
Student, USC Museum Management Program
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Hi Peggy,

A good place to start is watching Caring for Archives: Fundamentals for Everyone from the C2CCare webinar archive, and browsing the excellent list of sources in the handout. Care, Handling and Storage of Works on Paper from the Library of Congress is also a good overview.

For detailed information organized by topic, the Northeast Document Conservation Center's Preservation Leaflets, especially section 4 on storage and handling, will be useful. The Canadian Conservation Institute Notes are also helpful and include a section on paper and books. The Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts' Resources take a little more work to navigate but offer rewards like Guidelines for Re-Housing: Renovation and Moving. This isn't an exhaustive list, just some starting points, and I especially encourage exploring the bibliographies and links for additional information provided on many of these pages. Looking at vendor sites, ideally after reading in the above sources about what criteria to use when selecting rehousing supplies, will also give you ideas about what options will work in your context.

Re: temporary storage, I'm not sure what options you're considering but I'd generally try to have a long-term rehousing plan thought out before packing and moving so that you can combine the rehousing and packing steps as much as possible, and so that if what's intended as temporary ends up becoming long term due to delays, you won't have to worry about it as much. In general, with a limited budget I'd prioritize materials in direct contact with collections, and compromise on outer-level enclosures.

Good luck with your project, and please let me know if you have more questions.

Rebecca

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Rebecca Smyrl
Connecting to Collections Care Monitor
Library & Archives Conservator
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