Caring for Collections on a Shoestring Budget: Open Shelving & Oversize Objects

Most museums cannot afford to purchase expensive state-of-the-art storage cabinets to house their collections and must resort to standard open shelving units. While this is a very viable option, the openness of the shelves leave artifacts that are not housed in boxes more susceptible to agents of deterioration.

The best method to care artifacts stored in this manner is to create a micro-climate out of polyethylene sheeting. To do this simply cut sheets to the height of the shelving unit leaving a few extra inches to fold the sheet over and attach it to the top of the unit. The sheets can be attached with standard binder clips. Do this for the entire length of the shelving unit. To “seal” the unit, simply use a combination of binder clips and ceramic magnets to close the gaps between sheets. An alternative to polyethylene sheeting is unbleached cotton muslin. The advantage of using polyethylene is that you will be able to see into the unit without having to open it.

OK, so now we know what is recommended for caring for objects on open shelving units, but the reality exists that many organizations simply do not have the money to purchase polyethylene sheeting or unbleached cotton muslin. This is where local hotels and motels in your community can come in handy.

Hotels must dispose of their bed linens, towels, and washcloths on a regular basis and when they are deemed to be no longer fit to use in guest rooms. Armed with this knowledge, write to hotels and motels in your community and ask them to consider donating their discarded linens to your organization. Explain to them that the linens will be used to help care for objects in storage. You can also offer to provide the hotel with a donation form stating that they have donated X-dollar amount of linens to your museum and they can in turn use this as a tax deduction at the end of the year.

Once you receive the linens, you will want to wash them in a museum accepted detergent and do not use fabric softeners when drying them. The sheets will then be ready to use to create dust-covers for your shelving units and you will have little to no out-of-pocket expenses!

I have had great success with this program at my museum. Every three months I can count on one of the local hotels calling me to arrange for delivery of the linens. We have been given sheets, pillowcases, mattress pads, quilts, washcloths, hand towels, and large bath towels. This has enabled us to not only better care for our collections, but we now have cleaning cloths for all of the departments within the museum!

For more information on creating a micro-climate, visit the National Park Service Conserve-O-Gram Dust Covers for Open Steel Shelving at http://www.nps.gov/history/museum/publications/conserveogram/04-02.pdf and Creating a Microclimate for Oversize Objects at http://www.nps.gov/history/museum/publications/conserveogram/04-04.pdf.