Hi Jon,
Principally I would say that chipboard is a poor choice in any museum store. Chipboard emits all sorts of chemicals that can harm specimens, including formaldehyde, peroxides, formic acid and acetic acid.
This is even more of a problem if the store is not extremely well ventilated - you said you would install this in well-sealed roller racking, which means that the pollutants would actually accumulate inside the roller racking.
No matter how robust your specimens are at present, this is definitely bad; I have seen many objects in collections deteriorate as a result of acid reactions. Acetic acid will corrode any materials containing metals (including minerals in geological collections; e.g., pyrite decay is catalysed by the presence of acids), and react with carbonate-containing specimens (resulting in 'beautiful' efflorescence of calcium acetate on calcitic fossils, and Byne's disease on egg and mollusc shells). The efflorescence formed by secondary minerals is accompanied by an expansion in volume, resulting in specimens becoming unstable, cracking and eventually crumbling to dust.
There is also a correlation between volatile organic content emission of wood and temperature. This means that you could reduce the amount of VOCs emitted by your shelving by lowering the room temperature - although this would come at the expense of an increased energy bill.
Now all of the above obviously depends on the materials you keep in your store. You could undertake a risk assessment (as in risks to the collection, that is) and decide that none of your specimens would suffer from adverse effects if stored in an environment with high VOC content, although in reality most objects stored in museums will suffer from prolonged VOC exposure.
If starting from scratch I would invest in metal shelving. Should that not be possible, chose a low emissivity wood, such as yew... Alternatively, you could try and get hold of some old (at least several decades), solid, softwood shelving and recycle/adapt this to suit your store. Also, improving ventilation helps in these situations.
Finally, have you tried asking around the museum sector for second-hand shelving? Shelving is something that is always being replaced somewhere; we certainly seem to move shelving around quite a lot. It might well be that somebody has a sufficient amount of old shelving stored, or is just getting rid of, that may be suitable for your store.
Kind regards
Christian
Christian Baars
Senior Preventive Conservator
National Museum Cardiff
Cathays Park
Cardiff CF10 4NP
+44 (0)29 2057 3302
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Twitter @NMWPrevCons
-----Original Message-----
From: The Geological Curator's Group mailing list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of GEO-CURATORS automatic digest system
Sent: 18 September 2014 00:12
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Subject: GEO-CURATORS Digest - 13 Sep 2014 to 17 Sep 2014 (#2014-98)
There is 1 message totaling 29 lines in this issue.
Topics of the day:
1. Using chipboard
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Date: Wed, 17 Sep 2014 16:18:32 +0100
From: Jon Radley <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Using chipboard
Geological curators,
Chipboard and some woods have a reputation for giving off pollutants - some of which are potentially harmful to museum collections. However, I'm considering using 18 mm chipboard sheets as a medium-term solution for a storage issue - constructing bases on which to place existing wooden trays of robust fossils, within well-sealed roller racking. We've had a trial run with chipboard and it only bows very slightly with the heaviest trays.
The fossils will not come into direct contact with the chipboard and it's infinitely cheaper than any other materials I've looked at. Has anyone ever had a problem with using chipboard, or even banned it from stores?
Thanks,
Jon
Warwickshire Museum
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End of GEO-CURATORS Digest - 13 Sep 2014 to 17 Sep 2014 (#2014-98)
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