Exploring

External Factors

External factors such as high, low, or fluctuating temperature and humidity; light exposure; the presence of pollutants; and poor storage and handling exacerbate the deterioration of collections. While these external agents affect all paper-based collections to a certain extent, some of them are particularly damaging to specific types of materials, which will be your focus here. You will consider these external agents of deterioration in more detail in Session 4: The Building and Environment and Session 5: Collections Care of this course, which will address how to control them and mitigate the damage they cause.