What are the optimal environmental conditions to preserve my institution’s collections?
Control over temperature and relative humidity is critically important to the preservation of your collections. Heat accelerates the breakdown of materials, and that in combination with high humidity can encourage mold outbreaks and insect activity. Very low relative humidity, too, can cause collections to become very brittle. The optimum range for your collections are the following: stable temperatures no higher than 70° (the lower, the better), and a stable relative humidity between 30% and 50%. Stability of these conditions is also very important, since fluctuations can also be very damaging to your materials.
