• Step 1. Know why, how, and where you will gather environmental data
• Step 2. Prepare your PEMs and start gathering data
• Step 3. Control the urge to check data too often
• Step 4. Transfer data from the PEM with an SRAM card

Step 1. Know why, how, and where you will gather environmental data

Reasons for organizing a program to monitor the environment

• To better understand how the storage environment is affecting the preservation of collections.
• To gather accurate statistical information about the storage environment.
• To develop long- and short-term plans for collection care and preservation and to head off potential storage problems.
• To document HVAC system performance.
• To optimize preservation benefits and avoid unnecessary energy costs.
• To communicate environmental concerns to managers and facilities staff.

How to organize your environmental monitoring program

• Convene a meeting of staff responsible for or concerned with the storage environment to set project goals. This team could include collection care staff, facilities managers, and preservation specialists.
• Assign a person to manage the project and to share data and reports with members of this team.
• Set a schedule for data collection. You’ll need at least a year’s worth of data from each space for accurate analysis. Monthly or quarterly uploads are most effective.
• Use the PEM as a strategic analysis tool, not an alarm system.
• Educate staff and patrons about preservation by explaining why you have a monitoring program and how important the storage environment is for long-term preservation of collections.

Where to place PEMs for environmental monitoring

• In indoor areas, including cold vaults, sealed but unheated buildings, and storage and display areas. Not outdoors.
• In the same environment that collections experience.
• In areas that hold the most important or most vulnerable collections.
• In each storage or display area where the environment is likely to be different from others because of HVAC systems or special circumstances.
• Midway between the floor and the top shelf or ceiling.
• Away from outside doors, air vents, radiators, cold walls, fans, or other direct sources of heated, cooled, dehumidified, or humidified air.
• Out of direct sunlight.