Connecting to Collections Care

Hi everyone, my museum is considering sensors for monitoring shock and vibration in art shipping crates, and we'd love some recommendations of desirable features and reliable products. (I understand C2CC doesn't endorse any particular products; we're mainly looking for a starting place in our shopping.)
I attended the excellent Crating 101 workshop at AIC last year and checked my notes, but the resources did not include a list of commercially available sensors.
 
We may have up to about 10 art crates out and about for loans at any time, and we are interested in monitoring shock and vibration, and secondarily, tracking location. We think our crate makers do great work, but we've encountered issues with shipping and handling in the past, so this would improve our visibility into the way our crates are treated and help us document future issues.

 

Our main criteria are that whatever we choose needs to be affordable and give us information that is actually useful to us.

• Are there any great monitoring/logging devices out there that you love and from which you have gained valuable insights?
• I know there are pros and cons to doing continuous monitoring vs. ShockWatch-type impact detection. What do you think is useful for our purposes?
• If there's an impact event detected by a ShockWatch sensor, is knowing that it happened after the fact useful for most objects, or are they actually most effective as a visual deterrent for bad handling? Does anyone sell ShockWatch labels in quantities smaller than 50, or in variety packs?
• Are combination GPS tracking and shock sensors worthwhile, or should we plan to get two separate devices for that?
• What have you found to be the best budget options?

 

Thanks in advance for your guidance!

 

Best wishes,

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Katherine Langdon
Conservator
The Walt Disney Family Museum
San Francisco
United States
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Hi Katherine,

Thanks for submitting these excellent, intentional questions to the community! Hopefully you'll receive some useful guidance and resources in return. In the meantime, I'm attaching ARCS (Association of Registrars and Collections Specialists) Technology for Remote Courier Practice resource which has a section on mobile tracking devices. I'll also cross-post your query to the ARCS forum; they recently held their courier training so some of the information you're seeking may be fresh on participants minds. 

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Sharon Fickeissen
Connecting to Collections Care Monitor
Senior Library Conservation Technician
Hagley Museum & Library
Wilmington DE
sfickeissen@hagley.org
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Original Message:
Sent: 05-12-2026 13:44
From: Katherine Langdon
Subject: Shock, vibration, and tracking monitors for shipping? Seeking guidance

Hi everyone, my museum is considering sensors for monitoring shock and vibration in art shipping crates, and we'd love some recommendations of desirable features and reliable products. (I understand C2CC doesn't endorse any particular products; we're mainly looking for a starting place in our shopping.)
I attended the excellent Crating 101 workshop at AIC last year and checked my notes, but the resources did not include a list of commercially available sensors.
 
We may have up to about 10 art crates out and about for loans at any time, and we are interested in monitoring shock and vibration, and secondarily, tracking location. We think our crate makers do great work, but we've encountered issues with shipping and handling in the past, so this would improve our visibility into the way our crates are treated and help us document future issues.

 

Our main criteria are that whatever we choose needs to be affordable and give us information that is actually useful to us.

• Are there any great monitoring/logging devices out there that you love and from which you have gained valuable insights?
• I know there are pros and cons to doing continuous monitoring vs. ShockWatch-type impact detection. What do you think is useful for our purposes?
• If there's an impact event detected by a ShockWatch sensor, is knowing that it happened after the fact useful for most objects, or are they actually most effective as a visual deterrent for bad handling? Does anyone sell ShockWatch labels in quantities smaller than 50, or in variety packs?
• Are combination GPS tracking and shock sensors worthwhile, or should we plan to get two separate devices for that?
• What have you found to be the best budget options?

 

Thanks in advance for your guidance!

 

Best wishes,

------------------------------
Katherine Langdon
Conservator
The Walt Disney Family Museum
San Francisco
United States
------------------------------