Dorset Archives Trust have recently funded the purchase of an environmental meter, which is used to offer advice to museums and individuals.
When caring for historic documents, it’s important to ensure the environment they are stored in is not detrimental to their long-term survival. At Dorset History Centre, archival documents are stored in purpose-built strongrooms that are controlled to specific temperature and humidity parameters and light levels are kept to an absolute minimum.
In historic houses and many museums which are based in old buildings, it is more difficult to control the environment. Despite this, it is important to understand what levels of light, temperature and humidity historic documents are being exposed to so that actions can be taken to protect them.
Finding the right level
To measure these levels we use an environmental meter, which was kindly paid for by Dorset Archives Trust. The meter can take spot or continuous readings of temperature, relative humidity, visible light and UV light. We can then use these readings to provide advice for protective packaging or calculating light exposure levels for exhibitions.
Dorset Archives Trust is a charity working to support the activities of Dorset History Centre in caring for Dorset’s archives.
