[NHCOLL-L:974] Environmental standards for spirit collections, what is being ach ieved ??

[Robin McPhee]

I have recently become involved in some spirit collection storage facility
environmental monitoring, and I'd like to get a better idea of what is
realistically achievable in spirit collection environmental control.

I have most of the information on environmental standards for natural
history collections, from sources like SPNHC, ASC, MGC (UK) 1992, Horie
1994, Simmons 1995, Moore 1999, etc.  However, it appears (in reality) there
is usually compromises to make, especially between the environmental
standards required for good collection management, health & safety of
employees, Fire Dept, Building & Local Authority approval, and the
institutional finances available. Also the extent of environmental control
required is influenced by how much you need to modify the external
conditions (i.e. what the weather is outside).

I'd like to ask those who have a spare minute if they could answer the
following questions about the spirit collections
 1. What their institutional spirit collection environmental standards are?
(e.g. temp., Rel. Humidity, light, others?) 

 2. What control / monitoring systems do they have in place to in their
spirit collections (e.g. dataloggers, air conditioning/cooling units, u/v
filters, etc.)??

I'm quite happy to post a summary of any replies I get back to the list, if
any others are also interested.

Thanks in advance
Robin McPhee
Technical Officer, EEZ Fishes Project,
Fish Section
Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa
169 Tory Street
P.O. Box 467
Wellington, New Zealand.
Phone DDI 64 4 381 7308
Fax 64 4 381 7310
e-mail robinm at tepapa.govt.nz