“When the heart of a cultural institution is its collection and over 90% of its collection is in storage,
then institutions deserve to prioritize taking good care of its heart—its collection in storage.”
Most of us would probably identify the threats to cultural collections as: fire, administrative loss, environmental and theft. Each institution may have a different sense of priority and jeopardy. But for high value collection objects, theft would usually be first or second.
The theft threat to collections in storage comes from: 1) 90% internal theft by any of a number of names, 2) administrative loss and 3) loss from external break-in. Institutions with poor physical security suffer the majority of the external break-ins. Institutions with good physical security 1) are ripped off by their own staff and 2) lose their collections administratively. These latter two are quite prevalent but seldom discovered promptly or reported externally.
A self-help’ paper does not substitute for a professional on-site evaluation of particular usage and needs, which is preferable. Directors and administrators decide when a professional evaluation or analysis and action is needed, preferably before a significant loss occurs. Modern management and insurance professionals usually recommend and support such loss prevention programs. Reviewing this presentation cannot do it alone.
Realistically, storage is: basements, attics, closets, storage rooms, unused offices, cabinets throughout the building, multi sites, out buildings and commercial or non-commercial off sites. Often it is whatever room is immediately available. We understand typical collection storage ‘issues’ to include:
· an unimproved attic without climate control;
· disorganized, untended, over-piled storage areas;
· a damp or leaky basement where there could have been trouble before;
· an outside room, with windows or under water pipes;
· significant losses from storage for any reason;
· a storage room next to a room with a high fire load such as fuel storage, or a boiler;
· major infestations, lack of environmental controls and ‘bad smells’;
· an existing storage area with known problems not addressed;
· an institution which cannot find its objects in storage; and
· storage in a busy area without controls on people or objects.
Now, what can we do?
1.
Fire is the most devastating threat to collection storage because it’s
irreversible.
· Install fire alarms (smoke and other types) with a local signal and an external signal off property to a fire department or alarm company under a supervised alarm wiring and regular testing and maintenance. It’s worth it, even for insurance purposes.
· Seriously consider installing an effective sprinkler system when you prefer a wet collection instead of ashes after a fire.
· Request voluntary, courtesy fire inspections from the fire department to discover what may have been overlooked by others.
· Determine and practice how to receive fire department trucks when the building is occupied, with emergency keys available and well identified.
· Determine and practice how to receive fire department trucks when the building is not open, with a means for them to enter with keys. Consider a ‘Bailey box’ (like the real estate key boxes), which can be very safe--even not generally known to the public, which can also be alarmed.
· Request a courtesy inspection from a knowledgeable official who knows National Fire Protection Association Standard 101 on Life-Safety and NFPA Standard 909 on Museums and Libraries.
· Use a professional when there is a major issue or problem.
· Make long range plans to remove any Halon system previously installed. You may need a fire protection consultant to find your best and most economical alternative.
· Keep collection storage areas clean, orderly and free of non-collection and unnecessary combustible storage.
· Restrict and enforce a ‘fire load’ limit of combustibles in each storage area.
· Restrict any source of uncontrolled heat from storage areas such as heaters, electrical appliances left on and no extension cords.
· Keep fire extinguishers of an appropriate kind, generally ‘A-B-C’. Keep them full and checked regularly.
· Show staff how to use fire extinguishers or ask your local fire department to do it.
· Test the fire alarm to make sure that it also rings in collection storage.
· Severely limit the use of open flames (candles, Bunsen burners, Sterno-type containers and torch soldering, brazing or welding) by requiring them to have a written permit and special precautions including a fire extinguisher nearby, a protective area around the operation and fire checks hours after the work is over.
· Control heating elements and coffee pots in all areas and require approved turnoff timers and end-of-day appliance checks.
· In a multi-occupant building, compartment collection storage from other areas with fire-resistant walls, simply done with plasterboard of sufficient thickness, even on the doors.
· Follow fire prevention recommendations for compact storage modules, including water sprinklers, limits of fire load and spacers between compacted units.
· Require periodic off-site storage checks to detect changing or deteriorating conditions.
· At the staff exit door, mark and post how to clearly turn off all utilities in an emergency.
· Follow fire department and code recommendations. Write a plan to achieve it long term.
· Check what disability evacuation accommodations are required.
· Use formaldehyde rather than alcohol for wet specimens to reduce the fire threat.
· Turn off unnecessary electrical circuits when closed or unused.
· Get a new evaluation of electrical panels, wiring and loads. Upgrade the fusebox and ground connections.
· Limit flammable liquid storage to one day’s use in the building, removing the remainder to immediate purchase or outside storage only.
2. Administrative loss is the most common and least reported cause of loss. [It’s also called accidental loss, administrative error, the cost of doing business, misfeasance, neglect, a shame and sometimes internal theft, which is treated separately later.]
· Establish a policy that a false statement on applications or reports is grounds for discipline or dismissal.
· Require all staff paid and unpaid to sign a policy on ethics, honesty and a commitment to report loss immediately, subject to discipline or removal as a penalty.
· When dismissing unethical staff and even thieves, avoid providing good recommendations that would victimize another institution, which might hire them on your recommendation.
· Require oversight and checking or auditing of collection protection by more than one person, by more than the usual staff and by an objective outside businessperson.
· Keep inventory lists separate from collections, with at least one updated duplicate copy safely off site, accessible to more than one person.
· Reduce the taking of risks that increase the probability of losses.
· Require everyone with regular collection storage access to ‘sign for’ his or her part of the collection.
· Check existing security systems with consistent and thorough but inconsistently timed checks of records, sign-in\sign-out registers, offices and work areas, storage areas and inventory.
· Avoid using collection storage areas as work areas, walk-throughs, or non-collection uses that require additional entries and exits.
· Encourage staff to set the example for visitors by opening their own bags and cases at the door at the time of removal for whatever staff member is closest to that door.
· Post visitor rules that include the right to ‘check’ any object brought onto or out of the property or building: entry checks are for the safety of persons present; exit checks are to verify ownership of items being removed.
· Compensate staff to their general satisfaction. Check disgruntled and unsatisfied staff who can become the greatest risks.
· Keep valuables and small items with ‘easy’ street value well secured and stored out of sight.
· Motivate a policy that is supported by the board and insurance companies to publicly announce losses promptly in order to maintain public accountability. Statistically, prompt reporting provides the best opportunity for recovery.
· Keep a full, accurate inventory that is physically checked regularly: Inventory the top 5-10% of your collection every day by splitting up the responsibility among staff; inventory the next 15% once a week. Inventory the next 25% of the collection once a month or quarter; and inventory the remainder once a year. Objects such as heavy weight cannon and sculptures in daily view need formal inventorying once a decade.
· Ask volunteers to regularly check objects on exhibit for both presence and condition against a checklist.
· Real security is getting a new professional security survey!
· Obey collection laws, international as well as national, including AGPRA.
· Know your local theft and antiquity protection laws as well as the national one.
· Close redundant or unnecessary doors permanently.
· You can use fake security signs, cameras and alarms only until they’re tested once, when they usually become ineffective or ignored.
· Prepare with your staff what to do in advance of a loss or emergency, including a staffer clearly guilty of theft, a valuable collection item missing for a long time, a break-in and a staff document forgery.
· Re-value upwards the level of protection for storage area when its stored values rise.
· Establish and maintain temperature and humidity controls to prevent extremes, especially freezing. Use recommended environmental limits in storage to extend collection life.
· Manual environmental reading equipment can be cheap. Remote recording and reporting equipment is not that more expensive in the long run. Remember to also check each microclimate.
· Avoid areas of leaky roofs and water leaks. Use water alarms on low floor areas and keep large amounts of Mylar plastic sheeting for emergency coverage.
· Carefully install dehumidifiers and humidifiers to prevent malfunction. To avoid unnecessary access need to storage, install machines outside the room and pipe the effect into storage.
· Require everyone who handles collections to know how to handle them properly, with gloves, or not handle them at all. Establish an emergency collections handling course for emergency staff.
· Teach the staff to care for the environmental needs of the collections regularly: temperature extremes or fluctuations, water or humidity extremes or fluctuations, direct sunlight, pollution, rodents, insects, mishandling, inherent vice (mechanical destabilization); and acidity extremes or fluctuation.
· Store shipment crates and boxes separately. They take up controlled environment space and sometimes carry infestations.
· Set collection storage density limits to avoid excessive storage weight in historic houses. Use runners over historic floors and plastic sheets over historic wall coverings.
· Keep supplies such as pads, wrapping and containers for emergency moving and cleanup, especially, reusable environmental safety materials such as silica gel packets, sponges and plastic sheets. Keep a dolly or handtruck for those times when you’re short handed or in a hurry.
· Keep appropriate kinds of conservators on call, preferably under a flexible contract situation.
· Check storage air circulation and where storage room vents connect in order to limit contamination from smoke and pollution.
· Write a practical emergency plan, provide copies to all staff and see if it works.
· Let construction materials off-gas before bringing them into storage. Avoid using plywood with formaldehyde.
· Segregate possibly unstabalized collection items and check on them more often.
· Be prepared to segregate or encapsulate storage areas from each other in emergencies.
· Consider using new hermetically sealed storage containers.
· Plan for modular bins, racks, screens, cabinets and shelving in advance.
· Check new collection additions for insect infestations before bringing them into storage.
· Prepare rescue plans for freeze drying, with trucks, companies, storage alternatives and tentative contracts.
· Before using compact shelving, consider weight limits, codes, fire load and the fire threat.
· Leave a set of emergency procedures and notifications next to the staff exit door.
· Become aware of and follow OSHA biohazard procedures, reporting and disposal.
· Use acid free, balanced pH (Solander- and Holinger-type) storage containers.
· Store items off the floor with floor clearance for cleaning, rodent control and air circulation.
· Use polyethylene or Mylar dust covers that double as waterproof covers.
· Use self-closing, self-locking storage and exit doors. Do not tolerate them propped open.
· Establish an organization personnel file with individual staff photographs, ostensibly taken for check cashing or identification card purposes.
· Compartment collection storage areas physically with semi-movable wire cages with each curator’s materials each under a separate lock and perhaps alarm.
· Take inventory photos cheaply on 35mm film of storage rooms, open cabinets, open drawers and shelves on a consistent basis but on an irregular schedule.
· Update collections objects promptly, but keep unaccessioned, unmarked materials separate, secured and photographed as they came in the door.
· Eliminate the idea of a ‘trusted’ staff who do not require oversight. No one is ‘above’ checking.
· Reduce the number of special persons who must visit collections storage: board members, dignitaries, collections specialists, researchers, and interns. Discourage or ban tours of open and accessible collections.
· Require staff for record purposes to submit a police name check that authenticates their correct name and lack of local criminal record. Supplement this with your own ‘credit check’ of all regular staff who have valuable and collection access.
· Require those who work closely with the collections to register several forms of application and identification that is checked along with photos and reference checks.
· Install a wire cage at the door for those who work closely with regular or large amounts of collection items, with a pass-through opening for a daily inventory, signature and item check.
· Require staff to account for and re-sign for keys each year and turn in what they don’t use.
· Require a sign-in\sign-out register at each collections entry\exit for persons and objects, such as on a shelf on the back of the entry door and keep them for at least five years.
· Install a glass panel in the storage room door with a light switch on the outside that permits checks without unlocking doors or causing alarms.
· Limit where staff may take collection objects, especially overnight. See Dudley’s graphic in “Registration Methods.”
· Authorize only the registrar or collections manager to mail or ship collection items.
· Require all bulky items to be mailed, shipped or picked up after being checked and signed off by a trusted staffer. This includes package and trucking pickups.
· Require a written sign-out register or pass record of all staff removals from the premises.
· Strictly control keys. Sign each one out. Account for ones in circulation. Require their return when people leave.
· Keep storage or high security keys secured in the building in a key box and signed out each day. Penalize those who lose them or lend them by charging them for re-keying that section. Change high security keys when staff leave employment.
· Reconsider historic housework layouts to reduce entries to storage.
· Check restrooms, lockers, coats, cases and bags as areas where persons might temporarily hide items for illicit removal later.
· Store extremely valuable and portable objects in a vault or safe. It’s even better when no one knows where this is or in which safe.
· Do not leave keys in obvious places, or alarm, safe or vault code combinations written nearby.
· Limit access to your computerized collection inventory, certainly not connected to Internet!
· Limit extreme work hours for staff.
· 5. Theft from the outside usually occurs at institutions without adequate or modern physical security precautions.
· Use physical barriers such as walls and bars to prevent entry and departure or cause delays.
· Document those using an area with registers, passes, keycards and cameras.
· Reinforce barriers and documentation with checks by persons, guards, electronics or alarms.
· Use the appearance of strong security is a deterrent. The reverse invites theft and abuse.
· Limit those who know the security arrangements, even insiders.
· Use both visible ‘deterrent’ security with unknown ‘overt’ security such as alarms and checks.
· Use ‘good security’ that is not high tech or costly but simply clever, such as installing three different locks on the same door with different keys; four kinds of security screws on the same case; or soldering objects to large mounts, the floor or the wall with metal rods.
· Match the barrier strength and resistance walls, ceilings, floors and openings\closures.
· Match the resistibility of door or window: frames, hinges, closures, locks and keys.
· Limit or eliminate the possibility of break-in, grab and run with alarms and cameras.
· Physically block off unnecessary storage areas exterior doors and windows and upgrade original locks and latches.
· Reduce or eliminate hard-to-see cubbyholes inside and outside where persons might hide.
· Use high-security (seven-pin tumbler locks or better) for storage entries.
· Reduce or eliminate the ability to make forced entry through basements or upstairs.
· Plan a security defense based on the practices of thieves in the area and a typical response time of local police.
· Don’t leave ladders or construction materials out after hours and weekends for climbing on.
· Require a storage area access list and written exceptions to it with entry\exit times written.
· Require staff identification or distinctive clothing to be worn to prevent visitors from duplicating staff behaviors that would be inappropriate for them.
· Instruct staff not to talk to others about security measures taken at the institution.
· Don’t advertise values of objects or where or how valuable collection objects are secured.
· Document conditions and collection items with photos and let everyone know this.
· Advertise strongly and widely that the institution ‘prosecutes’ those who steal.
· Communicate losses with police, pawnshops, auctions, collectors and show organizers.
· Secure valuables in areas not known to everyone: out of sight out of mind.
· Use outside lights with ultrasonic sensors to flash on when there is exterior or interior motion.
· Defend the non-public perimeter by escorting unauthorized visitors out of private areas.
· Use signs that you are ‘protected by alarms’.
· Use electronic delay emergency exit doors for an extra minute to check before it unlocks.
· Close and lock doors internally and alarm key walk areas when closed, so that no one can easily walk through the entire closed building at night.
· Require the local police to drive by to check regularly.
· Direct outside lighting against the building and landscape to not hide persons at night.
· Post no entry signs for closed hours to help police know who belongs and who does not.
· Ask the local police to provide a free crime prevention inspection.
· Carefully check for staybehinds at closing nightly: where would they hide inside?
· Plan security as concentric rings of security: closing a vault; closing the storage room; closing the public area to unauthorized visitors; closing the building to unauthorized use after hours; and closing the property to trespassers when closed.