We have recently been considering whether we ought to place the cleaning of
strongrooms in Cumbria onto a more organised and regular basis, rather than
relying on the somewhat ad hoc arrangements which have tended to operate in
the past.
In order to formulate a policy and possibly also to help persuade
the relevant authorities, we would be interested in responses from other
archive services regarding any of the following issues:
* Do you have a caretaker or other designated staff member whose
responsibilities include the cleaning of the strongrooms - i.e. the floors
and also ensuring that dust is not accumulating on individual shelves? If
so, how frequently is that person able to cover your entire storage area?
Are there any areas which receive particular priority? (Details of the area
covered and any costings - whilst not essential - might also be helpful.)
* If you have no permanent provision, when and how do your strongrooms get
cleaned? (This includes both the floors and the shelves.)
* Either from a document conservation viewpoint, or indeed for potential
staff health reasons (e.g. dust allergies and disability equality), are you
conscious of any significant and current need to make improvements? Could
you provide any specific evidence to illustrate measurable conservation
benefits, achieved through improving the regularity of cleaning? Do you
know of any published work on this topic?
* Have you ever received any voluntary help in this regard, e.g. from
members of Friends organisations - perhaps wanting to make a contribution
towards better document preservation?
Any comments welcome - either onlist or offlist.
If there is sufficient interest in the topic, I could provide a summary of
responses. (These would be carefully anonymised if confidentiality had been
requested, or if this otherwise seemed appropriate.)
Aidan Jones,
Cumbria Record Office & Local Studies Library, Barrow-in-Furness.
|