Introduction to environmental monitoring

Monitoring the environment within your museum is an essential part of caring for collections. It helps you understand how well your building and display cases protect objects from external conditions, and supports informed decisions about their long-term care. By tracking environmental conditions over time, you can identify problems early, plan improvements, and manage energy use more effectively.

Environmental monitoring is an active process that helps you understand how conditions in your museum affect collections over time. It involves regularly collecting and using data to assess risks, improve environmental control, and inform decisions about care, energy use, and building performance.

Monitoring involves:

• Monitoring any space that houses collections
• Taking regular readings (i.e. temperature and humidity) internally and externally
• Making notes on charts, or reports when events may have factored changes e.g. exhibition openings, extreme weather
• Maintaining the information for future use i.e. for energy consumption
• Comparing readings over time to see trends in seasonal or annual conditions
• Comparing readings against agreed/ideal standards i.e. for loans
• Making sense of the data by understanding how you use your building and access your collection
• Reporting findings i.e. to funders, Trustees or lenders
• Deciding future needs for heating systems, energy usage or sustainable practices

Monitoring helps you understand the conditions of buildings and display cases to prevent and slow deterioration to collections. Everyone who works or volunteers in a museum should understand the environmental needs of the collections and help maintain these conditions. This ensures that monitoring is meaningful and supports the care goals you are trying to achieve.

Key environmental factors to monitor include:

• Light (visible)
• Ultraviolet (UV) radiation
• Relative humidity
• Temperature
• Pests and microorganisms
• Pollution and dust levels

Most of these can be monitored as part of routine practice, either through regular visual checks or using handheld or more advanced equipment. Monitoring UV Radiation requires specialist equipment, and it’s advisable to employ an expert consultant to monitor pollution.

As all of these factors contribute to effective collections care, it’s important to invest appropriately in equipment and consultants when required.

Our suite of preventive conservation guides contains comprehensive information on each of these environmental factors.

Every object in a museum collection has slightly different environmental needs. These may be affected by how the object has been stored or displayed in the past. For example, archeological material will require different conditions from costume or sculpture collections.

Details of suitable environments for different types of materials are available in this wider suite of preventive conservation guides.You can also refer to recognised standards, such as BS and BS EN conservation standards for guidance on best practice.

Pests and pollution are influenced by environmental conditions and should be actively managed. Understanding what conditions encourage pest activity or pollutant build-up, and which objects are most at risk, will help you reduce potential damage. Regular monitoring can confirm whether preventative measures are working, especially if there is little evidence of pest activity or pollutant impact.

Sustainable environmental management requires careful planning. When setting environmental conditions for your collections, you should consider:

• The cost of installing and maintaining systems, including staff training and materials
• The long-term conservation care of objects, as poor or unstable conditions can lead to costly conservation work
• Environmental impact, including carbon footprint, climate change, and the surrounding environment
• The operational needs of your museum, ensuring improvements work alongside access requirements and building constraints

For further guidance on balancing all these different factors, use the BSI Specification for managing environmental conditions in collections.

There are plenty of resources available to help you in implementing an appropriate and effective monitoring plan. It can also be useful to speak with other museums and find out what plans they currently have in place. If you’re part of a Geographic Forum, these meetings are a good opportunity to have these discussions.<

Our advice guides cover specific environmental needs of different materials in your collections.

Several museum organisations have published guides on different elements of environmental monitoring, including Collections Trust.

National Museums Scotland, Birmingham Museums, and the Museum of London have all gathered information on pest control and identification.