Environmental Monitoring Devices for Haverford College Special Collections

FAIN: PG-50741-10

Haverford College (Haverford, PA 19041-1392)
John Anderies (Project Director: May 2009 to November 2011)

Funding supports the purchase of 10 preservation environment monitors that will provide long term data with which to guide reallocation of space in Special Collections storage areas. The holdings include the Quaker Collection, college archives, rare books and manuscripts, and fine art. The Quaker Collection, which spans the history of Quakerism from the 17th century to the present, consists of 35,000 printed volumes and 2,400 linear feet of manuscripts, as well as photographs, artwork, artifacts, furniture, films, videos, sound recordings, and digital files.

This application requests $2,990 to purchase 10 Preservation Environmental Monitors (PEMs) supplied by the Image Permanence Institute (http://www.imagepermanenceinstitute.org/) to be used to monitor and assess the conditions of collection storage spaces in use by Haverford College Special Collections. Data collected by the monitors will be used to make decisions about the distribution of the rare and unique materials stored within these spaces and will allow us to better manage the long-term preservation of the collection for the benefit of our users well into the future.