Collections: A Journal for Museum and Archives Professionals

The Royal British Columbia Museum (RBCM) has a large and valuable collection of archival records, artifacts, specimens and associated information pertaining to the Province of British Columbia's human and natural history. In 2004 and again in 2010 the RBCM conducted a comprehensive risk assessment to identify and quantify the potential impact of threats to the collections. Methodology was based on the Cultural Property Risk Assessment Model (CPRAM).

The RBCM risk assessment projects, which included over 30 staff members, were each completed over a period of several months. The results of the latest comprehensive review provide a corporate-wide perspective of the risks to the collection. Some risk related assumptions were confirmed and new issues came to light. As a result of these risk assessments, a Risk Management Implementation Plan has been developed to address the most damaging and imminent threats to the collections. A discussion of the evolution of risk assessment at the RBCM is included.

Museums in Romania have cared for their cultural property for a long time. In recent years, however, conservation and protection of heritage has made major step changes and is following new directions. In this context, focus is shifting from restoration of objects to preventive conservation of collections. This is an important concept change in our country which has previously considered mostly treating individual objects as the first option for improving preservation of heritage.

In this regard, two important events brought to Romania were the International ICCROM Course Reducing Risk to Collections, as well as the Directions in Preventive Conservation international conference, both held in 2007 at ASTRA Museum in Sibiu. At the national level, they were meant to introduce the most recent knowledge in this field and to create a starting point for specialists to adopt or adapt new ideologies and strategies in their museums.

For our museum it was a very good gantry as the case studies which were carried out during the ICCROM course clearly revealed deficiencies in the storage conditions for our collections. It also offered us a tool for expressing the urgent need of changing the past situation as well as for making possible successful application for external funds for building a new storage facility. The ASTRA Centre for Heritage has been established and is functioning as an example for many other museums in Romania.

The collections of the National Archaeological Museum in Bulgaria are among the richest in the Balkans. The museum is placed inside the oldest building of its kind in Sofia—the 15th century Buyuk Mosque (The Grand Mosque). Its permanent exhibition consists of approximately 4000 objects of different materials—stone, ceramics, metals, mosaics, frescoes, icons, glass, parchment, paleontological materials, flints, ivory, bone and leather. An assessment of risks related to ten agents of deterioration and influencing both the permanent exhibition and the building was completed in 2009–2010. Risk treatments to reduce those risks were developed.

This method of museum risk assessment was applied for first time in Bulgaria. Because preventive conservation has never been a priority in the National Archaeological Museum, and in Bulgaria in general, many risks were identified as currently affecting the exhibited objects or as having had a negative influence in the past. When the assessment started, many problems were already visible but it wasn't clear which risks affected the collection and building most. The main purposes of the assessment were determining which risks have higher magnitude, therefore greatest expected effect, as well as pointing attention to collections on display.

The Cultural Property Risk Analysis Model was applied in 2006 to a Portuguese archive located in Lisbon. Its results highlighted the need for the institution to take care of risks related to fire, physical forces and relative humidity problems. Five years after this first analysis the results are revisited and a few changes are introduced due to recent events: fire and high humidity remain an important hazard but are now accompanied by a pressing contaminants problem. Improvements in storage systems were responsible for a large decrease in terms of calculated risk magnitude and proved to be very cost-effective.

The Denver Museum of Nature & Science's (DMNS) risk assessment evaluated hazards to collections in storage using the Cultural Property Risk Analysis Model (CPRAM; Waller 2003a) to structure a comprehensive assessment and calculate magnitude of risk. Magnitude of risk (MR) is the fraction of collection value expected to be lost given one hundred years exposure to current conditions. The MR is the simple product of four variables (Fraction Susceptible [FS], Loss in Value [LV], Probability [P], and Extent [E]) that are multiplied as follows: MR = FS x LV x P x E. This paper describes the process as implemented at the DMNS and the resultant collections preservation strategies (Southward and Thorwald 2010). The implementation of these strategies are significantly improving DMNS collections stewardship and is an essential step in a larger preservation process (new storage facility) that results in safe and more accessible storage of the 1.4 million objects the Museum holds in public trust.

The Seaside Architecture Inventory of Oeiras includes fifty single-family houses, built for sea vacation, between 1860 and 1925, in the territory of the current Oeiras’ municipality and still existent. This study involves, in a multidisciplinary approach, the systematization and the description of the buildings and also the assessment of its risk level. The research was constituted through field work, supported by documentary and bibliographical research. This paper presents the method used to the assessment of this buildings’ physical risk.

This paper describes the development of a collection risk management strategy within Historic Royal Palaces, which is a thriving commercially-based visitor attraction. The approach is two pronged. It first comprises a steering body, the ‘Agents of Decay’ Board, for strategic direction and collaborative decision making for risk mitigation measures that are supported and implemented. Second, at operational level, it offers a team approach between conservators and commercial staff to achieve conservation risk management goals whilst delivering a financial and client or visitor successful business. Collection risk management is woven into the activities of the palaces enabling the Historic Royal Palace business to be successful, which in turn leads to the generation of more funds for conservation.

The two systems of managing health and safety and of managing preservation of cultural property have many parallels. Either, or both, can exist as predominantly habit-based systems. However, when managed from a proactive perspective, they can be considered goal-directed systems. In the first case, the goal is to maintain health and avoid accidents to people. In the second case, the goal is to avoid damage and loss to cultural property. Both goals are clear, widely accepted, and even inarguably noble and worthy, a great advantage for both systems.

Health and safety and cultural property preservation systems will operate best when they are mutually supportive. As a simple example, wearing appropriate gloves while handling objects protects the wearer as well as the collection object/specimen from contamination. Some examples of conflicts between the two risk management systems can also be found. For instance, an old collection of pharmaceuticals can pose many risks. From a health and safety perspective, disposal seems the obvious solution. From a curatorial perspective, keeping contents intact for future analysis may be important. The exercise of developing a creative solution that protects both people and collections can lead to improved understanding among all parties.

Viewing health and safety and cultural property preservation as parallel and closely related risk management systems opens the way to improvements in both. Combining the two encourages synergies that can lead to effective risk management and resource allocation by custodians of our collected heritage.

In addition to the wear and tear of time and exposure that normally endanger museum collections, larger scale events such as September 11, 2001, the Northeast Blackout of 2003, Hurricanes Kathna and Irene and the Virginia Earthquake of 2011 have emphasized the threats to collections and underscored the importance of a comprehensive approach to risk planning. In response, the American Museum of Natural History has been steadfastly committed to identifying a complete picture of its collections priorities, and is accomplishing an overall risk assessment of its research, exhibit and library/archive collections. The assessment model used for this three-phase project is based on the Cultural Property Risk Analysis Model (CPRAM) developed by Robert Waller and colleagues at the Canadian Museum of Nature and adapted to accommodate the specific needs of a large, complex institution. These assessments have provided AMNH administrators with information crucial to making long-term strategy and policy decisions about reducing and mitigating risks to collections.