Responsibilities for Environmental Monitoring for

Collection Preservation

All library staff has a responsibility to be aware of acceptable environmental conditions for library materials and to report higher than normal heat and humidity to the appropriate supervisor. Library Department Heads and those assigned monitoring responsibility must be the first line of defense against problems involving temperature and humidity. While PPS is also responsible for maintaining correct temperature and humidity levels in library buildings, experience indicates that we cannot rely on them for consistent monitoring.

Responsibilities

Preservation is responsible for:

• Installing monitoring equipment in branch libraries (out of Geisel) and in all enclosed collections (Mandeville, SIO Rare Book Room, Music/Film Closed stacks).
• Providing training to branch and Geisel library staff in reading the equipment.
• Providing information on their website regarding appropriate temperature and humidity levels for library collections.

Branch, Mandeville, and Arts Library Department Heads are responsible for:

• Insuring that temperature and humidity in their units is monitored on a regular basis (closed collections should be monitored daily).
• Writing responsibility for this activity into the job card of the appropriate staff member(s).
• Reporting any extreme changes in temperature or humidity in staff areas or in open stacks to PPS (Mandeville and Music/Film report to Library Facilities) and, if the problem continues, to Preservation.
• Requesting assistance from Library Facilities in dealing with PPS if needed.

Geisel Department Heads are responsible for:

• Reporting extreme changes in temperature or humidity in staff areas or open stacks to Library Facilities.

Library Facilities is responsible for:

• Monitoring the Annex daily.
• Working with PPS to resolve problems in Geisel, Annex, and the branches.
• On an annual basis, checking with PPS to determine if they are following acceptable standards for Library buildings and closed collections.

Return to UCSD Preservation Guidelines.