Image Permanence Institute homepage

IPI News

IPI's New Electronic Temperature and RH Logger Is Here!

The compact, highly accurate PEM2 is the easiest-to-use device of its kind on the market. Read more>>

IPI Awarded Three Grants Totaling Over $1.25 Million for Two Major Image Preservation Research Projects

The DP3 Project

The DP3 Project: the Digital Print Preservation Portal consists of two lines of research that will examine the preservation of digital prints. One has been funded by a $606,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, which will make possible an in-depth investigation of the stability of digitally printed materials when they are exposed to light, airborne pollutants, heat, and humidity. The other, supported by a grant of $314,215 from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, will be a study of the potentially harmful effects of enclosures and physical handling on digital prints, as well as their vulnerability to damage due to flood.

Because images produced by new digital print technologies are entering the collections of local, state, and national institutions at an increasing rate, IPI wants to help collections staff understand and better care for them. The project will provide libraries, archives, and individual scholars with new information regarding the permanence and care of prints created using modern digital output technologies. A new web site (www.dp3project.org) will have project results; information and tools to aid in identifying digital prints and in understanding their chemical and physical nature; recommendations for storage, display, and handling; and guidance in assessing the risk of flood damage.

The WebERA Project

IPI’s second research project will create a novel web-based system called WebERA (which stands for Web Environmental Risk Analysis), enabling collections staff in museums and libraries to efficiently move large volumes of environmental data directly to the web. The Institute of Museum and Library Services awarded a $332,760 grant for this project. Most museums and libraries lack the necessary staff time and in-house expertise to manage their environments effectively and efficiently. Furthermore, it is difficult to determine the degree of risk or benefit to collections and to organize, maintain, and report on mountains of data. The premise is that environmental risks can be managed and mitigated if they can be identified, quantified, and then communicated to museum leadership and facilities managers. The idea of using the web to store and share environmental data directly is new, but it is firmly rooted in IPI’s environmental research and development over the past 13 years.

The success of our collecting institutions over the long term will depend not only on how well they can market themselves, but also on whether their collections are in good enough condition to attract the attention of visitors and scholars. Environment is the least costly way to ensure that competitive edge and to avoid the expense of preventable damage. WebERA is designed to overcome the obstacles that most often prevent museums and libraries from managing environments successfully.
—James Reilly, IPI Director

Project activities will include programming the WebERA web server application and working with a selected pilot group of 10 museums and five libraries to test the design and function of the WebERA system (read more). Project results will be made available to the preservation community through conference presentations and a web publication.

Many items that have appeared previously on this page can be found
on our Archives pages.

	DEWPOINT CALCULATOR
	Explore the interrelation of temperature, RH, and dew point in your storage or display environment.