the environment
Monitoring Temperature and Relative Humidity

Footnotes

1. Barbara Appelbaum, Guide to Environmental Protection of Collections (Madison, CT: Sound View Press, 1991), p. 25. Appelbaum gives an excellent description of relative humidity, its relationship to temperature, and their effect on collections of all types.
2. James M. Reilly, Douglas W. Nishimura, and Edward Zinn, New Tools for Preservation: Assessing Long-Term Environmental Effects on Library and Archives Collections (Washington, DC: Commission on Preservation and Access, November 1995), p. 7.
3. Reilly, et al., p. 7.
4. Reilly, et al., p. 20.
5. National Information Standards Organization, Environmental Guidelines for the Storage of Paper Records. Technical Report NISO-TR01-1995 (Bethesda, MD NISO Press, 1995), p. 1. This report gives a good summary of conclusions drawn from recent research into the effect of temperature and RH on paper-based collections.
6. In 1994, the Smithsonian Institution issued a controversial press release that appeared to contradict this conclusion. It asserted that research done by scientists in its Conservation Analytical Laboratory indicated that wider fluctuations in temperature and humidity than previously recommended could be tolerated by a wide range of museum collections. However, this research was primarily concerned with mechanical damage to collections—rather than the chemical damage that is the primary cause of paper deterioratio—and hence of limited applicability to library and archives collections. Articles providing further information on the Smithsonian controversy are cited at the end of this leaflet.
7. See "Setting Up an Environmental Monitoring Program," prepared by William P. Lull (Princeton Junction, NJ: Garrison, Lull, Inc., September 1995) as a supplement to the monitoring discussion in Conservation Environment Guidelines for Libraries and Archives from which material here was used.

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