PAS 198:2012 Specification for managing environmental conditions for cultural collections
PAS 198:2012 (Publicly Available Specification) specifies requirements for managing the setting of environmental conditions for collection items held in cultural collections in the UK, whether in storage, on display or in transit. It is applicable to all types and sizes of cultural collections held by individual collectors and all types of collecting organizations such as archives, historic houses, libraries and museums, whether public or private.
It sets out a framework within which environmental conditions can be specified and methods of achieving them can be determined. It also provides guidance in the form of notes and informative annexes to support collecting organizations in complying with the requirements of PAS 198:2012.
PAS 198:2012 has been developed to help collecting organizations meet their responsibility to establish and maintain environmental conditions that preserve the cultural collections in their care for future use and enjoyment. It is a specification for managing environmental conditions for collections and covers temperature, relative humidity, light and pollution. The starting point for users of this PAS is to develop an understanding of the sensitivity of collection items to these agents of deterioration.
PAS 198:2012.aims to help users make their own judgements about specifying beneficial environmental conditions appropriate to local circumstances. The emphasis is on providing conditions for the materials and structures of collection items that will help prevent rapid deterioration or irreversible damage. Although deterioration cannot be arrested altogether, it can be significantly slowed down. Good management of environmental conditions can extend the lifetime of even sensitive materials.
Contents for PAS 198 includes:
- Introduction
- Scope
- Terms and definitions
- General
- Temperature
- Relative humidity
- Light
- Pollution
Relationship with other publications
This PAS can be used in conjunction with the following additional publications for the cultural sector:
- PAS 197:2009, Code of practice for cultural collections management
- PD 5454:2012, Guide for the storage and exhibition of archival materials (PD 5454:2012 superseded BS 5454:2000, Recommendations for the storage and exhibition of archival documents and PD 0024:2001, Archival documents – Guide to the interpretation of
BS 5454:2000)
