Cyclical Maintenance and Housekeeping
Cyclical maintenance and housekeeping are mostly non-invasive planned efforts carried out on a regular basis to prolong the life of an historic building or collection to avoid destruction or costly repairs. The Alliance has compiled this set of resources on cyclical maintenance and housekeeping from amongst its own offerings as well as those throughout the nonprofit and museum sector.
Alliance Resources
The Alliance’s online community provides a place to foster dialogue and ask and answer questions about museum practice.
Tier 3 museum members can access a number of sample cyclical maintenance/housekeeping policies from other museums.
Other Resources
The Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC) provides a technical leaflet with procedures for cleaning books and shelves. It includes a list of supplies.
The Minnesota Historical Society offers guidelines on cleaning practices for storage and display areas, floors, shelves, and collections items (PDF, 5 pages).
The Conservation Center for Art & Historic Artifacts’ (CCAHA) collection housekeeping guide covers scheduling and has a helpful chart for when to conduct certain housekeeping tasks.
Covid-19 Basics: Disinfecting Cultural Resources
The National Center for Preservation Technology and Training webinar with Dr. Mary Striegel covers how to properly disinfect cultural resources. Dr. Striegel answers five important questions, including what is the Covid-19 virus, how long does it persist on surfaces, how do we deactivate the virus, what about historic materials, and what safety precautions do we need?
The National Park Service’s (NPS) Museum Handbook (PDF) has a 27-page chapter on museum housekeeping. It offers guidelines for developing a housekeeping plan and includes sample forms and a bibliography.