February 3, 2021
IPI distributed an online questionnaire in November 2020 to inform a current inventory of commonly used materials and designs for sealed frame packages. We are grateful to the more than 100 colleagues, working in a variety of collecting institution types around the world, who responded to our sealed frame package questionnaire. In September 2020, IPI began a three-year research project funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services designed to identify the most cost-efficient and environmentally responsible preservation methods of preparing paper-based collection objects for transit and display. During the first phase of this project, IPI distributed an online questionnaire in November 2020 to inform a current inventory of commonly used materials and designs for sealed frame packages. We are grateful to the more than 100 colleagues, working in a variety of collecting institution types around the world, who responded to our sealed frame package questionnaire. Twenty-five respondents also generously contributed annotated schematics of the sealed frame package designs used at their institutions. The information collected will inform additional phases of the project, including testing a variety of sealed frame package designs under several different temperature and relative humidity profiles to compare how they perform. Each design will also be evaluated for cost and environmental waste comparisons. The ultimate goal is to provide guidelines for creating the most cost-efficient and environmentally responsible sealed frame packages that provide the desired preservation goals.
In an effort to understand how changes in mechanical system operations in response to the COVID-19 pandemic impacted collections environments across institutions, IPI launched a field study through an online submission platform from October through November 2020.
IPI is thrilled to announce that Dr. Emma Richardson will start her role as Director of Research in July 2021. Emma is the first to hold this new leadership position, responsible for guiding IPI’s research agenda. Emma brings extensive research and leadership experience in the applied sciences, and an impressive professional record in higher education with a focus on cultural heritage.
IPI is looking to partner with three collecting institutions in North America as part of a three-year research project, Integrating Risk Assessment for Pollutants into Energy-saving Strategies, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). The project involves two years of field research focused on monitoring room-level pollutant concentrations while implementing energy-saving strategies for mechanical system operation.
The National Endowment for the Humanities awarded the Image Permanence Institute a Research and Development grant for $350,000 to support a three-year, field-based research project that will apply data from pollutant and environmental (temperature and relative humidity) monitoring to comprehensively balance these known risks to collections when implementing energy-saving mechanical system operations.