IAMFA Papyrus Magazine Highlights Museum Facility Conference

PAPYRUS
I N T E R N AT I O N A L A S S O C I AT I O N O F M U S E U M F A C I L I T Y A D M I N I S T R AT O R SI N T E R N AT I O N A L A S S O C I AT I O N O F M U S E U M F A C I L I T Y A D M I N I S T R AT O R S
Preview of the
25th IAMFA Annual
Conference in Chicago
Climate Control of the
Arnamagnæan Archive
Progress Report for
IAMFA’s Strategic Plan
The “Russian Doll”
and Other Unique
Approaches to
Fire Protection
VOL. 15, NO. 3 WINTER 2014–2015VOL. 15, NO. 3 WINTER 2014–2015

Atlanta, U.S.A. — Kevin Streiter
High Museum of Art
kevin.streiter@woodruffcenter.org
Australia — Shaun Woodhouse
Australian Centre for the
Moving Image
Shaun.Woodhouse@acmi.net.au
Chicago, USA — William Caddick
Art Institute of Chicago
wcaddick@artic.edu
Los Angeles, USA — David Cervantes
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
dcervant@lacma.org
New England, USA —
Jim Moisson
Harvard Art Museums
james_moisson@harvard.edu
New York, USA — Mark Demairo
Neue Galerie
markdemairo@neuegalerie.org
New Zealand — Cliff Heywood
Royal New Zealand Navy
clifford.heywood@nzdf.mil.nz
Ottawa-Gatineau, Canada —
Ed Richard
National Gallery of Canada
ERichard@Gallery.ca
Philadelphia, USA — Rich Reinert
Philadelphia Museum of Art
RReinert@philamuseum.org
Northern California, USA —
Jennifer Fragomeni
Exploratorium
jfrago@exploratorium.edu
United Kingdom — Jack Plumb
National Library of Scotland
j.plumb@nls.uk
Washington/Baltimore, USA —
John Bixler
Smithsonian Institution
bixlerj@si.edu
Denis Smalley
Library of Congress
dsmalley@loc.gov
REGIONAL CHAPTERS
President
Nancy Bechtol
Smithsonian Institution
Washington, DC, USA
bechtna@si.edu
V.P., Administration
Randy Murphy
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Los Angeles, CA, USA
RMurphy@lacma.org
V.P., Regional Affairs
Brian Coleman
Museum Victoria
Melbourne, Australia
bcoleman@museum.vic.gov.au
Treasurer
Alan Dirican
Dumbarton Oaks
Washington, DC, USA
DiricanA@doaks.org
Secretary
David Sanders
Natural History Museum (Retired)
London, UK
d.sanders@bham.ac.uk
2015 Conference Chair
Bill Caddick
Art Institute of Chicago
Chicago, Illinois, USA
wcaddick@artic.edu
2016 Conference Chair
James Moisson
Harvard Art Museums
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
james_moisson@harvard.edu
IAMFA BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Letter from the Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Message from the President . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
IAMFA Five-Year Strategic Plan (2013–2018):
A Progress Report. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Recap of the 24th IAMFA Annual Conference
in Scotland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2014 IAMFA Scotland Guest Program . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
It’s Always a Pleasure—The 2014 IAMFA
Conference Guest Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Preview of the 25th IAMFA Annual Conference
in Chicago. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2014 Benchmarking Practices and
Learning Workshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
The “Russian Doll” and Other Unique
Fire-Protection Approaches for Irreplaceable
Collections. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Climate Control of the Arnamagnæan Archive. . . . . 33
IAMFA Peer Recognition Award . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Best Practices Feature Article:
Patch-to-Match: Art or Science? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Regional Updates and Member News . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
IAMFA Members—Organizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
For additional
contact information,
please visit our website at
www.NewIAMFA.org
For more information on becoming
a member of IAMFA, please visit
www.NewIAMFA.org
Cover photo: The Centre Hall at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum was the venue for the Burns Supper, during the 24th IAMFA Conference in Scotland.
Photo: Ashley Davies
CONTENTS
Statements of fact and opinion
are made on the responsibility of
authors alone and do not imply an
opinion on the part of the editors,
officers, or members of IAMFA. The
editors of IAMFA Papyrus reserve
the right to accept or to reject any
Article or advertisement submitted
for publication.
While we have made every attempt to
ensure that reproduction rights have
been acquired for the illustrations
used in this newsletter, please let us
know if we have inadvertently over-
looked your copyright, and we will
rectify the matter in a future issue.
IAMFA/Papyrus
Volume 15, Number 3
Winter 2014–2015
Editor
Joe May
Contributors
Lars Aasbjerg Jensen
Nancy Bechtol
Bill Caddick
Judith Capen
Christine Coleman
Hal Davis
Maurice Evans
Nancy Evans
Mette Jakobsen
Patrick Jones
Poul Klenz Larsen
Joe May
Keith McClanahan
Tiffany Myers
Tim Padfield
Jack Plumb
Rich Reinert
Morten Ryhl-Svendsen
Robert Weinstein
Design and Layout
Phredd Grafix
Editing
Artistic License
Printed in the U.S.A. by
Knight Printing
ISSN 1682-5241
Past issues of Papyrus can be found on
IAMFA's website: www.NewIAMFA.org

Chicago, I was fortunate to visit many
of the museums in Chicago as a kid, and
they were great nearly 50 years ago.
I wonder if anything has changed in
the past 50 years?
Chicago has a rich history, and it’s
been 15 years since IAMFA met for an
annual conference there. It will be a
milestone year for IAMFA. IAMFA was
founded in 1990 by George Preston,
who was Director of Physical Plant at the
Art Institute of Chicago. It is so fitting
that we are back in Chicago, hosted by
the Art Institute, to celebrate IAMFA’s
25th anniversary.
In this issue, you’ll find numerous
articles from our members, along with
one from one of our 777 LinkedIn
Group members: Morten Ryhl-Svensen,
who is an associate professor at the
School of Conservation (KADK) in
Copenhagen. The article is about a
small archive of the Arnamagnæan
Institute at Copenhagen University,
which has almost entirely passive air-
conditioning, due to its placement
between a corridor in a permanently
warm building and the building’s outer
wall. Thanks, Morten and colleagues,
for submitting this interesting article.
We included 300 images from the
Scotland Conference in the centerfold
of this issue of Papyrus, but if you want
to see more, we have uploaded a few
thousand to our IAMFA Archive. You
can find a link on the Members Only
page of our website www newiamfa.org
to view and download them from
IAMFA’s new Dropbox Archive. You’ll
also see a link on that page to make a
recommendation for a Peer Recogni-
tion Award. Tiffany Myers is heading up
a committee to nominate an annual
award recipient from IAMFA’s member-
ship who has made significant contri-
butions to our mission. Please take a few
minutes to recommend someone you
believe has helped IAMFA to become
a better organization. You can read
Greetings from Los Angeles!
S
ince the last issue of Papyrus, we
have traveled to Scotland for the
24th Annual IAMFA Conference,
and I hope you were one of the record
number of attendees. Jack Plumb and
his team put on a terrific event for us,
and I’ll never forget it!
We were there during the history-
making referendum, in which the
Scottish people ended up voting to
remain part of the United Kingdom.
It was so interesting to see all of the
maneuvering going on alongside of
what we were there for, which was one
of the best annual conferences in our
history. I hope you have a chance to
read the Conference Recap article in
this issue.
Having been on the IAMFA Board
since 2005, I’ve learned that, before one
of our conferences is finished, planning
for next year’s conference has already
been underway for some time. There
are a lot of moving parts involved in
organizing a conference, and our
Chicago hosts have been planning
for a while now; you will start to learn
more about their plans in this winter
issue. There is an article by Patrick Jones
and Bill Caddick with preliminary
plans—but I happen to know some
of the surprises that you won’t read
about in this issue, so keep an eye on
our website, and you may be among
the first to hear about these surprises.
You won’t be disappointed! Having
grown up about a hundred miles from
2 PAPYRUS WINTER 2014–2015
more about this new Peer Recognition
Award program in this issue.
You have no doubt heard about
the Five-Year Strategic Plan by now.
IAMFA’s Board of Directors prepared
a progress update on the strategic plan
in this issue. Please read about our
progress to date, and join one of the
committees organized to advance these
goals. Please give back if you feel that
you’ve benefitted from being a member
of IAMFA.
One of our corporate members—
Hal Davis of SmithGroupJJr—has also
contributed an article: “The ‘Russian
Doll’ and Other Unique Approaches
to Fire Protection for Irreplaceable
Collections.” Hal leads SmithGroupJJr’s
Cultural Studio in Washington, DC.
SmithGroupJJr is one of the largest
architecture, engineering and plan-
ning firms in the U.S., ranked #1 for
design quality.
In addition, Robert Weinstein
and Judith Capen have contributed
an article called “Repairing Old
Concrete at Meridian Hill Park in
Washington, D.C.” This is a very
interesting project, conducted in
a highly systematic manner.
Finally, a treat for all of us: two
of the guests at this year’s Scotland
Conference wrote about their expe-
riences. Thank you so much, Chris
Coleman and Nancy Evans. Many
of us don’t get to experience all the
interesting and fun things that the
guests get to see during the guest
program. If you brought a guest to
the conference this year, I hope you
make sure you let them read these
two articles. It is so neat that two of
the guests had such a great time that
they sent articles about their trip.
I hope 2015 is a wonderful year
for all of you. It will soon be time to
start celebrating; after all, IAMFA will
turn 25 years old when we meet next
autumn in Chicago.
Joe May
Editor, Papyrus
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

program that was very successful. Our
sincere thanks go to our sponsors for
all of their support in Scotland, and I
look forward to working with them
again for our Chicago Conference
in 2015.
In Edinburgh, we awarded our
second Diplomat Award to the much
deserving Camfil Ltd. Camfil has been
a sponsor of IAMFA longer than any
other corporation, and has always
sponsored an evening reception during
the conference that is not to be missed!
I had the pleasure of sitting next to
Chris Ecob with Camfil at our Gala
Dinner and, boy, was that a treat—his
company, the setting and the food!
Three of our finest longstanding
and devoted members, Bob Morrone,
Jack Plumb, and Harry Wanless, were
awarded with the Lifetime Achievement
Award at the conference, and just
seeing the surprise on their faces
when their names were called was
priceless! It is very important that we
always take time to remember how far
we have come as an organization from
those early days, nearly 25 years ago.
It is because of the dedication of
professionals like Bob, Jack, and
Harry that we are where we are today.
The Organizing Committee did an
outstanding job putting together the
educational program for our 2014
Conference. The conference started
with a Benchmarking Workshop that
47 people attended at the National
Library of Scotland, in their famous
Reading Room. We followed the work-
shop with an opening reception in the
same beautiful Library so that everyone
—guests and members alike—could
enjoy the space.
On Monday, we traveled to Glasgow
for a full day and evening of events in
five different cultural locations. We
started the day at the Burrell, and
ended it at Kelvingrove with a Burns
Supper. It was a very long day, but I
wouldn’t have changed a single minute.
We have many to thank for organizing
such a fabulous day, but I must mention
David Thomson, who worked with us
for months leading up to our confer-
ence, as well as all day on the Monday
of our conference.
Tuesday we spent at the National
Museum of Scotland, and were treated
to several more excellent educational
sessions, as well as excellent museum
tours. On Wednesday, we visited the
National Galleries of Scotland, and
were hosted to a full-day symposium on
sustainability topics from outstanding
experts in our profession.
Our optional day on Thursday
brought us to New Lanark for a
wonderful day of touring this expan-
sive historical property. Thanks so much
to everyone involved in planning and
executing these fabulous days in
Scotland for our membership and
guests. I will never forget my time in
Edinburgh and Glasgow, and the
professional acquaintances made.
If you missed the 24th Annual
IAMFA Conference, you missed a
great experience.
Next year, we will host our 25th
Annual Conference in Chicago, Illinois,
home to the first-ever IAMFA Confer-
ence. Bill Caddick and Patrick Jones
are busy organizing this conference
for September 20–24, 2015. Check out
their article in this edition of Papyrus
to see what they are already planning
for our visit.
The Board has a very busy winter and
spring planned, with much ongoing
work in our new sponsorship and
membership committees. If you are
interested in helping us out on one
of these committees, please let Randy
or Brian know; they are always looking
for members who want to help.
In the meantime, I wish everyone a
very merry holiday season, and all the
very best in 2015. Thank you for your
continued support of IAMFA, and
all the good work it does to improve
our profession.
T
his is my seventh letter to the
membership as the President of
IAMFA. I accepted the nomination
of another term as your President at
our annual meeting in Edinburgh,
Scotland, just two months ago. We also
voted in Randy Murphy, Vice-President
for Administration, and Joe May, Editor
of Papyrus, for another term as well.
We conducted this business and much
more during our IAMFA annual
general meeting at the National
Museum of Scotland.
Speaking of Scotland, were you
one of the 85 IAMFA members who
attended the Annual Conference in
Edinburgh? If you were, you know how
fabulous it was! Every single minute of
every day was programmed with out-
standing educational sessions, museum
tours and networking with colleagues.
From breakfast through dinner, we
toured the cultural sites of Edinburgh
and Glasgow.
The 2014 Annual Meeting Organi-
zing Committee, led by Jack Plumb,
just simply outdid itself in every way
possible. The work that goes into orga-
nizing a great conference is extensive,
and it was evident at every location that
the planning was done, and that it paid
off. For our membership, everything
just flowed perfectly throughout the
conference at each and every location.
We cannot thank this team enough for
a job well done!
A quality conference depends upon
solid sponsorship from our corporate
friends, and Jack did an amazing job put-
ting together an excellent sponsorship
PAPYRUS WINTER 2014–2015 3
Nancy Bechtol
President, IAMFA
MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

I
AMFA has a history of strategic
planning. Many of us remember
meeting during the 2005 Annual
Conference in Bilbao, Spain, to discuss
how we could improve IAMFA as an
organization. That was the first meeting
of which we were aware, although
there were probably others earlier
in our organization’s history.
We met again during the 2010
Conference in San Francisco, where
all of the conference attendees enthu-
siastically contributed their ideas, and
together we generated a list of our
Strengths, Weaknesses, Threats, and
Opportunities for Improvement. In
2011, attendees at the IAMFA Confer-
ence in Auckland met again to prioritize
the ideas on these lists from our session
in San Francisco. These were the top
four priority items in each category:
Strengths
• Publishing Benchmarking Data
• The Annual Conference
• Papyrus
• Vehicles for Sharing Knowledge
Weaknesses
• Website is out of Date
• Lack of Participation by Smaller
Institutions
• No Permanent Staff; All Volunteers
• Need Better Sharing of Technical
Information
Threats
• Economic Conditions May Prevent
Members from Attending the
Conference
• Lack of Process in Educating Upper
Management that Facilities is a
Core Business
• Member Organizations May not
See the Importance of Attending
the Conference
• Reductions in Operating Budgets
leadership duties while in the midst
of planning the excellent IAMFA
Conference in Washington, D.C.
Nancy asked the Board to consider
what strategic goals IAMFA should
have for the next five years. We had
worked hard to address the priorities
identified during the 2010 and 2011
Strategic Planning Exercises, but our
efforts were becoming less focused,
and it was again time to take a step
back and regroup.
The Board identified six goals that
we believed should be the focus of our
efforts for the next five years, and we
presented this new Strategic Plan to
the membership at the 2013 IAMFA
Conference. The complete plan is
available on our website, but the six
goals are as follows:
• Grow Membership
• Develop Sponsorships
• Establish Financial Fitness
• Achieve Educational Excellence
• Increase Communication
• Enhance Metrics and Technology
It has now been two years since
we established these six goals, and
we’d like to provide an update of
our progress to date.
Grow Membership
We established a membership com-
mittee in 2013 made up of Board
members and several members of
IAMFA, and just revised the membership
of this committee this year. The com-
mittee, now led by Brian Coleman
and David Sanders, has worked this
past year to improve individual and
institutional membership. It has recently
developed a membership plan with
many great initiatives, some of which
are described below.
IAMFA Five-Year Strategic Plan
(2013–2018)
A Progress Report
By the IAMFA Board of Directors
Opportunities for Improvement
• Improve Marketing; Website is not
User-Friendly
• Add Value by Sharing Best Practices
• Develop a Searchable Database
of Issues
• Establish Guidelines for Temperature
and RH Settings
The Strategic Planning Exercises of
2010 and 2011 were useful in identify-
ing the best opportunities for improve-
ment. After the 2011 Conference, the
Board began discussing how we should
begin working on these improvement
opportunities.
Over the following year, a great deal
of work was done behind the scenes
on the Number One item: developing
a new website. That year, we also
developed job descriptions for Board
positions. We changed the bylaws to
allow all members to vote during
elections—rather than limiting it to
those attending the conference—and
allowed members to vote by email.
We developed a new Nominating
Committee Policy to make sure the
best candidates were selected to serve
on the Board of Directors.
In addition, we developed guide-
lines for administration of the George
Preston Memorial Award, and IAMFA’s
Lifetime Achievement Award, to ensure
proper recognition of those who
help IAMFA achieve its mission. We
formalized marketing material for the
new website, identifying the benefits of
IAMFA Membership, and we developed
an Index of Technical and Historical
Articles published in past issues of
Papyrus. It was a very busy year for
Board members who were able to
contribute their time.
In 2012, Nancy Bechtol was elected
President of IAMFA, taking up her

This past year, we explored reaching
potential new members by offering a
free 2015 IAMFA membership to
attendees at a range of workshops
aimed at museum facility managers.
These were: the Midwest Museum
Sustainable Lighting Symposium in
Chicago in September, and five work-
shops on Sustainable Preservation
Practices for Managing Storage Envi-
ronments presented by the Image
Permanence Institute, which is a
member of IAMFA. To date, five of
the six workshops have taken place,
and we have 383 new IAMFA trial
members for 2015.
Brian Coleman and Shaun
Woodhouse from Australia have
also been speaking with members
of an organization called PACA that
has similarities to IAMFA, and will be
inviting selected members for a free
2015 IAMFA membership. We will see
how many of these trial members we
can retain at the end of 2015, but we
think that trial memberships may be
a very economical and effective way
to publicize IAMFA as an organization
representing their profession.
We decided in 2013 that we needed
to develop a proper way to recognize
IAMFA’s corporate members for their
contributions to IAMFA’s mission.
We rely heavily upon our corporate
members for their specialized expertise,
and for their sponsorship of IAMFA.
In 2013 and 2014, we recognized
Steensen Varming and Camfil Ltd.
for their contributions to IAMFA by
presenting them with the IAMFA
Diplomat Award.
IAMFA has 12 Regional Chapters
around the world. We need to ask for
help from the Chairs of these Regional
Chapters to reach out to potential new
members and to help retain existing
members in their geographical regions.
We’ve held breakfast meetings with the
Chapter Chairs during the past two
annual conferences, and are begin-
ning teleconferences soon with all the
Chapters to determine what more we
can do to involve the Chapters.
We’ve focused more effort over the
past two years on reaching members
who are about to let their annual
memberships lapse. Everyone is so
busy doing their jobs that sometimes
they just don’t get their dues paid.
IAMFA depends on these membership
fees to sustain the organization, and
we are working hard to retain our
valued existing members, even as
we reach out to new ones.
This year, IAMFA is introducing
a Peer Recognition Award. This will
be similar to Hollywood’s People’s
Choice Awards, in that our members
will vote for the person they believe
has helped the organization prosper
in achieving its mission. We hope every-
one will visit the website’s Members
Only page to vote for whomever you
believe most deserves the Award in
its first year.
We will soon begin to offer financial
assistance to inactive Chapters to help
them host meetings. Regional Chapters,
you will hear about this soon. The
Membership Committee will also be
developing position descriptions for
Chapter Chairs soon, capitalizing on
what has worked well for some Chapters
in order to help jumpstart activities
in Chapters that have become
relatively inactive.
Develop Sponsorships
We began to develop a Corporate Spon-
sorship Plan in 2012 with John Castle’s
help. Randy Murphy continued that
work, and produced the final plan that
we are currently executing. This plan
will be carried out by the newly devel-
oped Sponsorship Committee, which
will have its first official meeting in
December 2014.
For many years, we’ve sought
the help of Conference sponsors
in providing IAMFA’s great annual
conferences, but this year we are intro-
ducing a new Corporate Sponsorship
Program. The Corporate Sponsorship
Program will be somewhat similar to
programs supporting public television
and radio in the U.S. If you are a cor-
porate member of IAMFA, we will be
talking with you soon about becoming
a Corporate Sponsor, and hope you
will feel that the benefits of corporate
sponsorship are right for you. The
sponsorship benefits are designed to
optimize collaboration and partnership
between IAMFA members and your
company, and to increase your access
to IAMFA’s membership. As mentioned
in the previous goal, we will also con-
tinue to recognize our top corporate
sponsors at our gala dinners for their
committed support to IAMFA.
This past year, we began to recognize
our sponsors by placing their logos on
our website, and when a visitor clicks
on a corporate logo, they are taken
to the sponsor’s website. Corporate
Sponsor logos are located at the top
of our homepage, while Conference
Sponsor logos are on the Conference
page. There are numerous benefits
to corporate sponsorship, including
Manager-level privileges in IAMFA’s
LinkedIn Group, which provides
direct access to our 777 LinkedIn
Group Members around the world.
A Manager can search members by
geographic region, and will be able to
periodically send messages to specific
members, or to make an announcement
to the entire group.
The greatest opportunity for our
Corporate Sponsors is that of estab-
lishing a relationship with IAMFA
members needing their expertise,
their services, or their products. Over
time, IAMFA members establish cordial
relationships based on trust, and these
lead to business opportunities with
IAMFA members and the facilities
they represent.
This past year, we explored
reaching potential new
members by offering a free
2015 IAMFA membership
to attendees at a range
of workshops aimed at
museum facility managers.

Establish Financial Fitness
IAMFA is a small not-for-profit asso-
ciation, led by volunteer members
who serve on the Board. Our size
and strength are dependent upon our
financial strength. Most of our income
comes from annual membership fees,
and we try to keep these as low as
possible to attract members from all
types of cultural institutions.
The Board decided we needed
to increase our savings to be more
resilient, in case we ever had a major
problem with an annual conference.
That could be disastrous for a small
association which relies on its annual
conference for financial support.
Because IAMFA has limited means of
generating revenue, we depend largely
on the generosity of sponsors to expand
our offerings, and increase the benefits
of membership in IAMFA. So it follows
that our success in achieving this
goal depends on the success of the
“Develop Sponsorships” goal.
Establishing financial fitness also
depends on controlling our costs.
By offering a Corporate Sponsorship
Program that increases access to our
members, we hope to grow sponsor-
ships, which will in turn allow us to
increase professional support to all our
members, and to the broader museum
facility administration profession.
In the past year, IAMFA Treasurer
Alan Dirican has begun developing an
annual budget for review by the Board
and by the membership at the Annual
General Meeting, held during the
conference. The Board has also imple-
mented an internal audit procedure to
ensure that our costs are aligned with
our objectives, and that all expendi-
tures and revenues are accounted for
properly, and according to non-profit
tax laws.
The good news is that, as a result of
several years of very successful corporate
sponsorship and annual meetings, we
have been able to reach our goal of
securing more savings to improve our
rainy day fund. We have quadrupled
our savings since 2010!
The bad news is that we still have a
long way to go in securing funding for
much-needed capital improvements
for our organization. We need to mod-
ernize our website, and purchase a
membership software program—to
name just a few of our requirements.
It is a good thing this is a five-year
strategic plan!
Achieve Educational
Excellence
Over the past few years, we have worked
hard on improving the educational
content of our annual Conference and
Chapter meeting programs. Scotland
Conference attendees will remember,
in particular, our Wednesday program
in Edinburgh at the National Galleries
of Scotland, which offered a quality
symposium on sustainability and
managing our collections.
We have come a very long way, but
have much work ahead in this goal.
This past year, we added an Education
page to our website to house documents
that we feel can benefit both IAMFA
members and visitors. The Education
page has numerous sub-pages with
Conference presentations, Regional
Chapter presentations, promotions,
workshops, and other resources that
members want to share. We’ve posted
all of the 2013 Conference presenta-
tions, and most from 2014, including
videotaped presentations from the
Wednesday joint day with conservators
and facilities attendees.
Viewing videotaped presentations is
a new capability just since we established
an IAMFA DropBox Archive. 3,000
photographs have been posted from
the 2014 Scotland Conference, and we
can house large video files, which was
previously impossible through our
existing website host. From time to time,
we will post links on our Members
Only page to targeted folders in the
archive that you may want to see, such
as conference photos.
Our new IAMFA Archive holds
organizational documents, policies,
past Papyrus supporting documents,
conference planning files, conference
photos, presentations, website support
files, and more. Please let us know if
you have a resource that you would like
to share with your fellow members,
and we will include it either on our
Education page or our Members
Only page.
Increase Communication
Communication between Board
members is very good. We currently
meet monthly by teleconference, and
we often email one another daily when
working on various issues. Monthly
Board meetings began in 2013, and
will continue as they have been most
helpful in moving our strategic plan-
ning actions forward throughout the
year. The Board now meets for a full
week during our spring Board meeting,
which has allowed us time to really
work on specific plans and projects.
Have you noticed the
improvements in quality, layout and
content of our Papyrus magazines
since 2010? Every single issue is
created with the goal of communication
to our members and our profession.
Editor Joe May has done an amazing
This past year, we added
an Education page to our
website to house documents
that we feel can benefit
both IAMFA members
and visitors.
Because IAMFA has limited
means of generating
revenue, we depend
largely on the generosity
of sponsors to expand
our offerings . . .

job in producing every edition, and
he has plans for more improvements
to come. What he needs from all of
us is articles!
Since 2009, our LinkedIn Group
has provided a means for IAMFA
members to communicate with one
another as they wish. There are times
when there are numerous posts in one
day, and there are times when there
are no posts for a month. We hope
IAMFA members feel free to use the
LinkedIn Group to ask for opinions on
topics that present challenges. When
someone posts a question, it usually
gets numerous responses within a day
or so. Our members are eager to help!
The area that we feel needs the most
attention is communication between
Board members and the IAMFA mem-
bership. Except for the President and
Editor, each of whom writes a message
in each issue of Papyrus, other Board
members communicate with the IAMFA
membership formally five minutes
each year at the Annual General
Meeting, and not all the members
attend the Conference.
Obviously, there are occasional email
blasts that go out to all members, but
there is limited communication
between the Board and the IAMFA
membership. We are proposing that
all IAMFA Board members contribute
a letter in Papyrus at least once each
year—and hopefully more often—
with a summary of their activities
and accomplishments. This will keep
everyone informed of what the Board
is working on.
Enhance Metrics and
Technology
A little over a year ago, we began
tracking monthly website statistics. We
use Yola as our website platform, and
we now plot new data each month in
Excel to update charts that show trends
in site visits, total pageviews, and unique
numbers of visitors. To date, we have
not taken any formal steps to increase
traffic to the site, but that is a goal. In
the coming year we will be researching
how we can best do this. If any member
has experience with this, we would love
to hear from you.
Several of you have volunteered to
help by serving on one of the commit-
tees to advance these six goals. We are
starting to get some significant traction
on all of them, and hope you will join
in and become part of the effort to
make IAMFA an even greater organi-
zation serving our profession. If you
are not on a committee, please consider
dedicating some time to IAMFA; you’ll
find out how worthwhile it is.
The IAMFA Board of Directors: Nancy Bechtol,
Smithsonian Institution; Bill Caddick,
Art Institute of Chicago; Brian Coleman,
Museum Victoria, Melbourne, Australia;
Alan Dirican, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington,
D.C.; Joe May, Retired, Getty Trust,
Los Angeles; Jim Moisson, Harvard Art
Museums, Boston; Randy Murphy,
Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and
David Sanders, Retired, Natural History
Museum, London.

T
he 24th IAMFA Conference in Scotland will be
remembered in part for taking place during the
week leading up to the history-making referendum
in Scotland regarding whether or not Scotland should
become an independent country. As nations around the
world watched for the latest information on the upcoming
vote, IAMFA’s members and guests began arriving in
Edinburgh for their annual conference.
We had all been looking forward to coming to Scotland,
and what we found when we arrived was a sense of national
pride, parades, debates, and healthy discussion about the
future of Scotland. Despite such a patriotic, thought-
provoking, and emotional subject, I never heard of one
instance in which Scottish citizens were less than respectful
about their individual views on the upcoming vote. Everyone
was either was a “Yes” or a “No,” but no matter what the
outcome, I had a sense that the Scottish were still going to
be Scottish, and Scotland was still going to be Scotland,
whether or not the majority of its citizens felt that they
should remain part of the United Kingdom.
I was so impressed by the Scottish people—and what a
conference our Scottish IAMFA members put on!
Jack Plumb from the National Library of Scotland led
a team of conference organizers who did an amazing job
in planning the conference. Here is the entire team:
Jack Plumb
Linda MacMillan
Liz Hamilton
Gavin Moffat
Glasgow Life
David Thomson
Alex McLean
Jane Rowlands
National Galleries of Scotland
Jacqueline Ridge
Michael Browne
Recap of the 24th IAMFA Annual
Conference in Scotland
Incredible Hospitality, Beautiful Sights, a Referendum
for Independence, One of the Best Educational Programs
in IAMFA’s History, and Thriving Cultural Institutions
Seen in the Fourth Dimension
By Joe May
National Museum of Scotland
Fiona Stewart
Sean Gillespie
Angela Whitehead
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
Sara Griffiths
Colin Smith
I know how much time they all spent planning this year’s
conference. They did an amazing job, and we will never
forget the sights and sounds of this year’s conference. And,
alongside all the educational aspects and terrific social
events, some of us even tried something new—for me, it
was HAGGIS!
The theme of this year’s conference was “the fourth
dimension”—the fourth dimension being time. Scotland
has a famous past, but they have reinvented that past to
provide a new cultural heritage for the children of Scotland
to embrace and take forward. The program was carefully
organized to tell this story, starting in Glasgow where we
saw how an industrialized city reinvented itself as a modern
cultural tourist destination. We found Glasgow bursting
with wonderful museums and galleries, both old and new.
This year’s conference was record-setting! There were
87 delegates and 57 guests in attendance. On top of that, the
Wednesday plenary session was a joint meeting of IAMFA
members and their conservator counterparts, for a total of
115 attendees. This was a real success, and demonstrates the
growing cooperation between facilities professionals and
conservators, especially in their efforts to preserve artifacts
while improving sustainability at our cultural institutions.
On Wednesday, the conference had attendance of more
than 170. The presentations made on Wednesday were
videotaped, and you can view them on IAMFA’s Website’s
Education page.
It is also very important that we recognize the sponsors
who made this year’s Conference possible.
A. McGillivray Electrical & Refrigeration Electricians—
Electrical & Refrigeration Contractors and Engineering

Bruynzeel—Storage Systems
Camfil Ltd.—Molecular Filtration Preserves Artifacts
Chubb Fire and Security—Making your World a Safer Place
Cofely GDF Suez—If it’s outside your business focus, it’s
core to ours
ECG Facility Services—On site or on call; a seamless
Facilities solution
EMCEL Filters—State of the Art filters . . . for the Arts
of the State
Gardiner & Theobald—Building for Museums—
Independent Construction and Property Consultants
Grundfos Pumps—Demand More, Demand Grundfos
Magna3
Hardies Property & Construction Consultants—
Professional solutions to all of your Property &
Construction requirements
Intelligent Counting—Visitor Management Systems
Link 51—Solving your collection storage needs
Norland Managed Services—Delivering Excellent FM
to Museums, Galleries, and Heritage Buildings
SPIE Facility Services—Global Reach, Local Presence
Steensen Varming—Specializes in civil, structural and
building services engineering, with offices in Denmark,
Australia, United Kingdom, Hong Kong, and Ireland
Xicato / Mike Stoane Lighting—Equipment Design +
Manufacture
These sponsors contributed to the intellectual content
through presentations, and by generously contributing
financially—enabling the spectacular venues, trips, and
meals we all enjoyed during this year’s conference. We
urge IAMFA members to keep this in mind when in need
of products, services, and expertise of the type offered by
these conference sponsors.
Day One of the conference began, as in past years, with
the Benchmarking Practices and Learning Workshop for
IAMFA members participating in the annual benchmarking
exercise. This valuable exercise allows member institu-
tions to compare building operation costs and practices,
in order to find better ways to get things done. Please see
Keith McClanahan’s recap of the Benchmarking Practices
and Learning Workshop in this issue of Papyrus.
The opening reception for this year’s IAMFA Conference
was held at the National Library of Scotland. It was a great
evening, spent visiting with old friends we hadn’t seen since
last year’s conference in Washington, D.C. and meeting
many new first-time conference attendees, while we enjoyed
appetizers and cocktails.
Because of the numbers attending this year’s conference,
and the number of events occurring in around Edinburgh,
three hotels welcomed delegates and guests. The APEX
International, APEX City, and IBIS Centre were great
homes for IAMFA members.
As in past years, the Scotland Conference included
separate programs for both delegates and their guests.
During the five days, the two programs took place in tandem
as delegates and guests travelled to the 14 venues included
in this year’s conference. Special mention should be made of
Liz Hamilton and Gavin Moffat and the rest of the Library
team, who did their best to look after all the guests during
their tour. Both delegates and guests spent much of their
time together at the same venues, while accomplishing
their individual objectives: learning and networking for
delegates, and exploration and discovery for the guests.
The venues included in the 2014 Conference were:
The Burrell Collection
Edinburgh Castle
Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum
Mary King’s Close
National Galleries of Scotland
National Museum of Flight
National Museum of Scotland
National Portrait Gallery
New Lanark
Scottish Parliament
Riverside Museum
Rosslyn Chapel
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
During the delegate program, members heard the
following presentations:
• Why are Museums Important to Glasgow?—
Duncan Morran
• The History and Development of Glasgow Museums—
Dr. Martin Bellamy
• Burrell Redevelopment—Alex McLean
• Transformation, The National Museum of Scotland—
Gareth Hoskins
Attendees at the optional Benchmarking and Learning Workshop
on the Sunday prior to the start of the IAMFA Conference, for
those participating in the 2014 IAMFA Benchmarking Exercise.

• Back to the Future, Adapting Heritage Buildings into
Modern Museums and Galleries—Dan MacKenzie
• The Making of the New Rijksmuseum—Karen Keeman
• The Mary Rose Museum—Alan Hutton
• The World Conservation and Exhibitions Centre at the
British Museum—Dr. David Saunders
• Ensuring a Sustainable Future for Properties in the
Care of Historic Scotland—Ewan Hyslop
• The Development of the Scottish National Portrait
Gallery—3 years on—Mark Napier and Jacqueline Ridge
During the conference, the IAMFA Board of Directors
met twice: first to prepare for the IAMFA Annual General
Meeting, and a second time with Chairs of IAMFA’s Regional
Chapters for breakfast and a discussion of new steps to
support the regional chapters, as well as to ask for the
Regional Chairs’ input and participation in IAMFA’s
strategic plan.
The Annual General Meeting takes place each year
during the IAMFA Conference. At this meeting, each
Board member addresses the membership with a
discussion of:
• Regional Chapter Activities
• IAMFA Administration
• Treasury
• Papyrus Magazine
• IAMFA Website
• IAMFA LinkedIn Group
• Strategic Plans
• Election Results
• Preview of next year’s IAMFA Conference (Chicago)
IAMFA’s President, Nancy Bechtol, reviewed accom-
plishments with regard to our five-year Strategic Plan,
introduced last year at the Annual General Meeting in
Washington, D.C. The Strategic Plan can be found on
the Members Only page of www.newiamfa.org. IAMFA is
positioned to expand its partnerships, and to reach new
members across the globe. To that end, IAMFA introduced
six goals for the next five years, aimed at continuing to
strengthen and grow our organization. IAMFA formed
committees for goals one and two, and much has been
accomplished towards those goals. Please see the separate
article in this issue for an update on progress toward the
following six goals:
• Grow Membership
• Develop Sponsorships
• Establish Financial Fitness
• Achieve Educational Excellence
• Increase Communication
• Enhance Metrics and Technology
Numerous members have stepped up to help on these
committees. We encourage all IAMFA members to volunteer
to participate on one of these six committees. Our success
depends on everyone contributing. Please give back if you’ve
benefitted from IAMFA in the past!
Three Board positions were up for election in 2014:
President, VP Administration, and Editor. There were no
new volunteers to serve in these positions for the next two
years. Nancy Bechtol, Randy Murphy, and Joe May each
volunteered to serve another two-year term in these positions.
On Wednesday evening, delegates and guests traveled to
the gala by coach, and upon arrival the evening began with
a group photo, and cocktails and canapés at the National
Botanics in Edinburgh. It was a beautiful venue for the
conference’s closing gala.
The Botanics at Edinburgh is a hugely important player
in a worldwide network of institutions seeking to ensure
that biodiversity is not further eroded. Covering approxi-
mately 70 acres, nearly 273,000 individual plants are grown
at the Botanics in Edinburgh and its three smaller satellite
gardens (known as Regional Gardens), located in other
parts of Scotland. These represent around 13,300 different
species from all over the world, or about 4% of all known
plant species.
Attendees enjoyed a delicious dinner, accompanied by a
variety of wines, and a dinner program. Four IAMFA members
were recognized with awards at this year’s closing gala.
The first was Corporate Member, Camfil Ltd., which has
been a corporate member of IAMFA for many years. Camfil
is the world’s largest and leading manufacturer of air
filters. Camfil is well known for molecular filtration—a
cost-effective method of controlling harmful pollutants
that threaten safe storage and display conditions. Camfil
provides various solutions, depending on the types and
concentrations of gaseous pollutants, the type of artifact
to be protected, and the layout of the ventilation system.
Camfil was presented with the IAMFA Diplomat Award
for its educational contributions to, and support of, IAMFA.
Accepting the award on behalf of Camfil was Chris Ecob.
IAMFA is very fortunate to have Camfil as a Corporate
2014 IAMFA Conference group photo.

Member and Sponsor of IAMFA. We rely so much on the
generosity of our sponsors, and Camfil’s contributions to
IAMFA’s mission have been invaluable. All of IAMFA’s
members have benefitted from the expertise they share
with us, and we also benefit from the products they provide
when we are in need of their expertise.
We hope Camfil Ltd. will display this award in their
offices to demonstrate to their staff and clients how much
we value them as a company, and also how much we value
them as members of IAMFA.
The second award of the evening was a Lifetime Achieve-
ment Award presented to Harry Wanless, a retired IAMFA
member from the British Library. Harry has been a member
of IAMFA for more than ten years, and was a charter member
of IAMFA’s Benchmarking Steering Committee. Harry and his
wife Sheila have attended every annual IAMFA Conference
since his first in 2004.
In 2010, Harry made a suggestion to the Board that we
meet after the AGM each year, so that we could discuss
member suggestions while they were fresh in our memories.
It was this suggestion that made us rethink how the Board
plans its meetings at conferences, mid-year Board meetings,
and monthly teleconferences. Since then, the Board has
significantly increased the meeting time at conferences and
mid-year meetings, and this extra time planning has helped
tremendously. IAMFA is a prospering, healthy, and growing
organization; and we owe this in part to the greater time
that the Board spends planning and exploring new ideas.
Harry’s suggestion back in 2010 helped us get to this point.
A second Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to
IAMFA Charter Member, Robert Morrone. Following a long
career at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Bob retired in
2009, but came back from retirement, along with his wife
Mary Ann, to be key members of the team planning the
2012 IAMFA Conference in Philadelphia. Bob is one of
the best known of IAMFA’s members, attending nearly all
of IAMFA’s 24 Annual Conferences. Bob was awarded the
IAMFA Lifetime Achievement Award for his dedication to,
and support of, IAMFA for all these years.
The final Lifetime Achievement Award of the evening
was presented to IAMFA member, and host of the 2014
Scotland Conference, Jack Plumb, of the National Library
of Scotland (NLS). Jack has been a long-time IAMFA
member, and is one of the leading contributors to IAMFA’s
Chris Ecob of Camfil Ltd. (center) accepts the 2014 IAMFA
Diplomat Award for the company’s years of support for IAMFA’s
mission. The award was presented by Jack Plumb (left), host of the
2014 Scotland Conference, and Nancy Bechtol, IAMFA’s President.
Bob Morrone (second from left) accepts the IAMFA Lifetime
Achievement Award presented by Rich Reinert (left), Alan Dirican
(third from left), and Nancy Bechtol (right).
Harry Wanless (center) is awarded IAMFA’s Lifetime Achievement
Award by John DeLucy, past President of IAMFA (left) and IAMFA
President Nancy Bechtol (right).
Jack Plumb (second from left) receives the final Lifetime Achievement
Award of the evening from David Sanders (left), Joe May (second
from right), and Nancy Bechtol, (right).

magazine, Papyrus. As editor of Papyrus, I have a real appre-
ciation for the dedication Jack’s shown to IAMFA, sharing
technology and improvements made over the years at NLS.
Jack also served as the UK Chapter chair for many years,
coordinating local meetings in the UK, and reporting news
from the UK Chapter. During the past three years, Jack has
written ten articles for Papyrus, and another six chapter
updates. His contributions to Papyrus have helped to make
it an excellent technical journal and this, along with his
readiness to share improvements with his fellow members,
earned Jack IAMFA’s 2014 Lifetime Achievement Award.
Congratulations, Jack! Thank you for your service on
IAMFA’s Board of Directors, and for giving us one of the
most unforgettable IAMFA Conferences in our history.
As dinner wound down, Bill Caddick, host of next year’s
25th IAMFA Conference, described preliminary plans for
the conference, which is scheduled for September 20–24,
2015 in Chicago. Please mark your calendars, and make
sure you join us next year for another unforgettable
IAMFA Conference.
This brought an end to the closing gala, and the end
of a wonderful 24th Annual Conference—or almost.
What remained was the final, optional extra day of tours
in New Lanark. New Lanark is a village on the River Clyde,
approximately 40 kilometers southeast of Glasgow. It was
founded in 1786 by David Dale, who built cotton mills and
housing for millworkers. Dale built the mills there in a
brief partnership with the English inventor and entrepre-
neur Richard Arkwright, to take advantage of the water
power provided by the only waterfalls on the River Clyde.
Under the ownership of a partnership that included
Dale’s son-in-law, Robert Owen—a Welsh philanthropist
and social reformer—New Lanark became a successful
business. It was the epitome of utopian socialism, as well
as an early example of a planned settlement, and thus
an important milestone in the historical development of
urban planning.
The New Lanark mills operated until 1968. Following
a period of decline, the New Lanark Conservation Trust
(NLCT) was founded in 1974 to prevent demolition of the
village. By 2006, most of the buildings had been restored,
and the village has become a major tourist attraction. It is
one of five UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Scotland,
and an Anchor Point of ERIH—The European Route of
Industrial Heritage.
The 2014 Scotland Conference was an adventure! We
were there firsthand to see a historic referendum, which
resulted in Scotland remaining part of the United Kingdom.
We saw so many interesting sights at the conference venues,
and enjoyed so many opportunities to learn and network
with our peers from scores of cultural institutions across
the globe.
For me, the most memorable event was the Burns Supper
held on Monday evening at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and
Museum in Glasgow. What an evening! I will never forget
all the sights and sounds from that night. For me, it was
exactly what I had imagined a traditional Scottish Supper
to be. The actors made it even more remarkable. I wish all
of our members could have been there to see it.
I know how hard our conference hosts worked to make
the 2014 IAMFA Conference so unforgettable. My sincere
thanks to the conference team—and particularly our host,
Jack Plumb. Jack, you do more than most IAMFA members
realize. Thank you!
Joe May has served on IAMFA’s Board of Directors since 2005, and
is the webmaster and editor of IAMFA’s magazine, Papyrus.
Bill Caddick presents a preview of the 2015 IAMFA Chicago
Conference.
For more information on becoming a member of the
International Association of Museum Facility Administrators, please visit
www.NewIAMFA.org
See page 30 for more information on membership benefits
Become a Member of IAMFA

I
have had the pleasure of attending
the IAMFA guest programs since
2001. They afford us an opportunity
to reconnect with old friends and to
meet new people from all over the
world. It doesn’t get any better than
that, and you make great contacts for
future vacations!
Each host city has the opportunity
to showcase their location and all it
has to offer. We had the great fortune
this year to be in Edinburgh, a very his-
torical city, during the historic Scotland
referendum for independence. There
were “yes” and “no” banners hanging
all over the country, and lively groups
gathering everywhere to promote their
point of view. In the end, the “no”
votes won 55% and Scotland remains
part of the United Kingdom.
On another note, the Royal and
Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews voted
to admit their first female players in
their 260-year history! Progress knows
no bounds!!
There is no better way to explore
Edinburgh, which is built on seven
hills, than on foot. Get ready for some
heart-pounding climbs and descents!
We began our walking tour in the
Grassmarket, which has evolved from
a location where farmers would trade
goods and cattle, and public executions
were held, to a trendy area filled with
some of the oldest pubs and cafes. We
walked to Greyfriars, the first church
built after the reformation in 1602.
We heard a feel-good story was about
a Skye Terrier called Bobby, whose
loyalty to his owner lasted 14 years
after his owner’s death in 1858. He
was fed by the locals, and lay over his
master’s grave in Greyfriars Kirkyard
every day until his own death. He was
rewarded with a statue in front of
Greyfriars Bobby Pub, and in 1961
Walt Disney turned his story into a film.
Next, we headed over to the Royal
Mile: the main thoroughfare in Old
Town that runs from the Castle to the
Palace of Holyroodhouse, the official
residence of Her Majesty the Queen.
This area was the site of some of the
earliest multi-story buildings in the
1500s, which housed approximately
80,000 people in cramped and
unsanitary conditions.
Back in the 1600s, this area was a
bustling commercial area, open to the
sky. Four hundred years later, our tour
of Mary King’s Close kept us under-
ground for 45 minutes. How did that
happen? The city was rebuilt on top of
these early buildings, so they are now
underground. Our tour guide, dressed
as a resident of the time, led us into
a warren of rooms showing us how
families lived in one room. They only
had a “bucket” for personal use, which
was emptied out the window into the
streets twice a day. You can well imagine
the unsanitary conditions both inside
the house and outdoors! Bathing was
considered unhealthy, so it was very
“fragrant” and disease was rampant.
During the tour, three portraits of
real people who lived in the area—
including prominent businesswoman
Mary King—came to life and spoke to
us about life at that time. It was very
entertaining, and made us thankful
for our own living conditions.
Further down the Royal Mile, in the
midst of old stone buildings, we arrived
at the new Parliament building con-
structed of steel, oak and granite. In
1997, the Scottish people voted to
build their first Parliament in almost
300 years.
The Holyrood site that was selected
for the building showed evidence of
occupation as far back as medieval
times. There was an architectural
competition for the building, and a
Spaniard was chosen. His design
concept was to show the relationship
between the building and the surround-
ing landscape, with sustainability being
the driving force. The site has won
many architectural awards, but of
2014 IAMFA Scotland Guest Program
By Nancy Evans
Greyfriars Bobby. Mary King’s Close.

course generated quite a bit of con-
troversy when it cost ten times the
original budget and ran three years
behind schedule. Time to update the
procurement model!
A full day trip to Glasgow for
delegates and guests was a rousing
success. We were able to visit three
outstanding museums and celebrate
the day with a traditional Burns dinner.
Haggis anyone? Songs and poetry
readings completed the evening.
We left for Edinburgh singing
“Auld Lang Syne.”
This was IAMFA’s first return to
Scotland since the previous conference
there in 1998. I’m sure the number
of participants was quite a bit larger
this time.
This is a great organization with
wonderful members and guests. I have
great respect for all the hosts, and the
planning they do for our conferences.
The behind-the-scenes coordination
and planning that takes place for more
than a year always culminates in yet
another fantastic conference. The joy
is seeing old friends, and making new
ones, while experiencing another
interesting city.
I’m already scouting out what else
to do in Chicago next September,
when Bill Caddick wows us with the
2015 Conference.
Until then . . .
Nancy Evans lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida,
with her husband Buck, who retired from
the Smithsonian after 31 years. Nancy
has a fast-paced job planning meeting
trips from start to finish for domestic and
international clientele visiting South Florida.
Scotland was Nancy’s 14th IAMFA
Conference. She can be reached at
nancy405@gmail.comThe public entrance of the Scottish Parliament building, opened in October 2004.
BUILDING FOR MUSEUMS
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United Kingdom, Americas and the Caribbean, Asia, Europe, Middle East

O
nce again, it was an absolute
pleasure to be part of a well-
established group, which not
only looks after its members superbly,
but also the large contingency of per-
sonnel who come and look after their
partners’ passports!
This is my fourth year accompanying
Brian to the IAMFA Annual Conference,
and I have to say that it only gets better
with each passing year. Not only do I
get to walk through some of the most
beautiful buildings in the world, sleep
in the most divine establishments, dine
in the most unforgettable rooms (or as
the case may be in Delaware–Longwood
Gardens Conservatory), but I also meet
many wonderful people who make
both mine and Brian’s journey a
memorable one.
The very full Guest Program on
the Tuesday took us out through the
rural areas of Scotland to the National
Museum of Flight. To see and read the
story of how the Scots managed to get
a Concorde from London, down the
Thames, then through the townships
from the wonderful visual surround-
ings, the musical entertainment—and,
of course, the consumption of the
haggis—will always be a memory to
share with friends.
It’s not always easy going overseas
when you know your partner has his
own schedule, and you have to find
your own way around with people you
don’t know. It is, however—and I hope
will continue to be—a highlight of our
year, as was this year as well, after having
once again met, laughed, dined and
cavorted with new and old friends.
I thank IAMFA for this opportunity
of a lifetime, and look forward with
great anticipation to carrying Brian’s
passport to Chicago next year.
Christine Coleman lives in Melbourne,
Australia, and with husband Brian has
three children and two grandchildren.
Chris works fulltime as a teacher assistant
(Integration Aide) at a special school for
students with mild intellectual disabilities,
ages five to eighteen, and at the moment
is building a website to support Integration
Aides across Australia.
It’s Always a Pleasure
The 2014 IAMFA Conference Guest Program
By Christine Coleman
Rosslyn Chapel. Preparations for the Burns Supper at Kelvingrove
Art Gallery and Museum.
and countryside of Bonnie Scotland
without a hitch, was amazing. We con-
tinued on our discovery tour and arrived
at the Maitland Hotel in Haddington
for a scrumptious lunch of local
salmon, then finished the day with a
visit to the famous Rosslyn Chapel.
On Wednesday, we all had various
activities we could attend in and around
the beautiful Edinburgh District. It really
is a very special place to visit and enjoy
the history of a nation.
For me, the highlight this year was
the Burns Supper. The Guest Program
had taken us to Kelvingrove Art Gallery
and Museum earlier that day, but noth-
ing could prepare me for the moment
I looked down from the mezzanine
balcony to see the foyer transformed
into what would be our dining expe-
rience for the evening. I was over-
whelmed by its grandeur, and the
thought of experiencing what is a
treasured and valued Scottish tradition.
To then hear the bagpipes piping
in the haggis was the icing on the cake.
A night that engaged all our senses,

McGuire Engineers is a
proud affiliate member
of IAMFA since 2001.
www.mepcinc.com

I
n 2015, IAMFA will celebrate
its 25th anniversary. In 1990,
George Preston, Director of
Physical Plant at the Art Institute
of Chicago, first saw the impor-
tance of founding a professional
organization of museum facilities
administrators and, along with
colleagues from several other
cities, laid the groundwork for
the organization we know today.
It is a fitting honor to George’s
vision that this important mile-
stone will be observed at the 2015
IAMFA Conference in Chicago.
The Chicago of 2015 is vastly
different from that of George
Preston’s time. In 1990, the Loop—Chicago’s downtown—
was a commercial district just recovering from the urban
problems of the sixties and seventies. With the exception
of a few cultural institutions, the center of the city was
vacant at night.
A swath of railroad tracks running east of Michigan
Avenue was a legacy of Chicago’s past as America’s railway
hub. Chicago, which has always been the laboratory of
American architecture, had only recently realized the
importance of preserving its historically important buildings.
Sadly, many important monuments to Chicago’s greatness—
conceived by architects as notable as Sullivan, Burnham
and Wright—were lost due to various failed “urban
renewal” schemes.
The past 25 years in Chicago have been among the most
exciting and revolutionary in the life of this great American
Preview of the 25th IAMFA Annual
Conference in Chicago
By Bill Caddick and Patrick Jones
IAMFA Founder George
Preston, former Director
of Physical Plant at the
Art Institute of Chicago.
The Chicago skyline today, with the Shedd Aquarium on the far left.
city. In 1991, led by Michael Jordan, the Chicago Bulls
basketball team won the National Basketball Association
Championship for the first time. They went on to do so
five more times during the next decade.
The United Center, home of the Bulls and the Chicago
Blackhawks hockey team, was erected in celebration of this
accomplishment. This stadium, prominent to air travellers
flying above the city, is known as “the house that Jordan
built.” In 1996, Bill Clinton was nominated for a second
term as U.S. President in the United Center. It was the first
presidential convention to be held in Chicago since the
ill-fated events of 1968, and heralded the nation’s renewed
love affair with the “Second City”. Chicago is also the
hometown of U.S. President Barrack Obama, who began
his career here as a community organizer.
Due to zoning changes in the 1990s, the Loop became a
residential district for the first time. With the influx of new
downtown residents became a busy place at all hours. The
Theater District was formed and several large houses—
including the Oriental Theater, the Cadillac Palace, the
Bank of America Theater, the Goodman and the Auditorium
Theater—found new life, and remain a vital component
of the cultural life of the city.
The City of Chicago, in acknowledgement of its new-
found status, undertook several dramatic projects to improve
infrastructure. The Orange Line of the Chicago Transit
Authority was opened, for the first time providing train
service between Midway Airport and the Loop. Both of
Chicago’s airports—Midway and O’Hare—now have train
service, and “the El” remains the most time-efficient way
to travel between the airports and downtown.
By far, the crowning achievement of this period was
the opening of Millennium Park in 2004. This spectacle

of landscape architecture replaced the aforementioned
railyard east of Michigan Avenue. The park is anchored by
the Jay Pritzker Pavilion: a monumental bandshell designed
by architect Frank Gehry. Gehry was also the architect of
the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, which will be
familiar to IAMFA members who attended the conference
there in 2005.
The Pritzker Pavilion is the site of numerous public
concerts, and is the place where Chicago welcomes its
returning heroes. Cloud Gate, an adjacent public sculpture
by artist Anish Kapoor, is a continuing source of wonder
to visitors. This sculpture, known by Chicagoans as “the
bean”, has become as important a symbol of the city as the
Sears Tower or Wrigley Field.
Venues to Date for the 25th Conference
The Chicago Conference team has selected the Hyatt
Regency Chicago as the event hotel for the 2015 IAMFA
Conference. This hotel will be familiar to IAMFA members
who attended the last Chicago conference in 2000. The
Hyatt Regency is ideally located on the south bank of the
Chicago River near Lake Michigan. It will allow our dele-
gates and guests easy access to the Loop, as well as to North
Michigan Avenue—known as the “Magnificent Mile”—which
is Chicago’s famous shopping promenade.
The hotel affords beautiful views of the Chicago River, and
such important architectural gems as the Wrigley Building
and Tribune Tower. The Hyatt Regency Chicago will be
the venue for the Annual Benchmarking and Learning
Workshop to be held on Sunday, September 20, 2015. We
have negotiated a block of rooms for the conference, and
when it becomes available, we’ll provide a link on the website’s
Conference page for you to make your reservations.
The Art Institute of Chicago
The Art Institute of Chicago is the second-largest encyclo-
pedic fine art museum in the United States. The museum is
situated at the corner of Michigan Avenue and Adams, which
is the point of origin of the fabled Route 66. Route 66—the
“Mother Road”—originally ran from Chicago to Los Angeles.
It is perhaps the most famous highway in American history,
and has been celebrated in the works of artists as diverse
as John Steinbeck and Nat “King” Cole. It is a Chicago
tradition for visitors to have their picture taken by the old
66 sign across from the museum.
Located in Grant Park, the Art Institute occupies a two-
block area. The Beaux-Arts base building, with its iconic
bronze lions, was originally constructed as a lecture hall
for the World’s Columbian Exhibition of 1893. Visitors are
encouraged to read the popular novel The Devil in the White
City by author Erik Larson for an exciting fictional account
of the fair and its time. The museum has since expanded
to a facility of over one million square feet (92,000 m2).
New to IAMFA delegates who attended the conference
in 2000 is the Modern Wing, which opened in May 2009.
Designed by Renzo Piano, and described by him as a
“temple of light,” this new structure occupies a full quarter
of the museum’s total plant area, and houses its Modern
and Contemporary art collections. This building, with its
distinctive use of daylighting and light-harvesting, will be of
great interest to our delegates. The building mechanicals
are creatively placed below a garden, and employ fan-wall
technology air-handling systems. The Modern Wing is
Millennium Park, with Pritzker Pavilion connected to Grant Park
by the Nichols Bridgeway.
Hyatt Regency Chicago. The Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago.

joined to Millennium Park by the Nichols Bridgeway,
also designed by Piano. The Bridgeway allows visitors an
easy transition between the natural beauty of the park
and the museum’s collections.
In September 2014, the Art Institute learned that it had
been named the No. 1 museum in the U.S. and in the world,
according to the Travelers Choice awards announced by
the travel website, TripAdvisor. With a staff of over 700
employees, the Art Institute is a “people’s favorite” and
welcomes 1.4 million visitors a year. It is also known for
its devoted membership of 98,000.
The Museum Campus
Located southeast of the Loop in Grant Park is the Museum
Campus, which affords visitors a spectacular view of the city
across Lake Michigan. Developed in the 1920s, the Museum
Campus is home to the Field Museum of Natural History,
the Shedd Aquarium, the Adler Planetarium, and Soldier
Field—home of Chicago’s beloved National Football League
team, the Bears.
The Field Museum of Natural History
One of the world’s largest natural history museums, the
Field Museum also had its roots in the 1893 world’s fair.
Named for the great Chicago merchant and philanthropist
Marshall Field, the Museum opened in 1921 in its monu-
mental, purpose-built facility. The Field welcomes as many
as two million visitors a year.
In addition to its permanent exhibitions and ever-
expanding collections, the Field Museum is considered a
top-flight research facility with a large scientific staff. The
Field’s most famous resident is Sue, the most complete
and best-preserved Tyrannosaurus Rex fossil in the world.
The Field’s facilities staff is noted for their success in
maintaining excellent conditions while preserving the
Museum’s 1920s grandeur.
The Shedd Aquarium
It has been a few years since an IAMFA Conference has
included a visit to an aquarium. The Shedd Aquarium,
which opened to the public in 1930, was the most-visited
aquarium in the United States in 2005, and is one of
Chicago’s most popular attractions. The five-million-gallon
facility is perhaps best known for the Abbot Oceanarium,
which opened in 1991. The Oceanarium is the largest
indoor marine mammal facility in the world, featuring
dolphins, beluga whales, sea lions and otters.
Among Chicago cultural institutions, the Shedd Aquarium
is the clear leader in sustainable and green facilities practices.
In 2006, in a ceremony presided over by then-Mayor
Richard M. Daley, the Shedd was recognized as Chicago’s
greenest museum.
The Adler Planetarium
Like the Shedd Aquarium, America’s first planetarium
opened to the public in 1930, projecting the night sky onto
an indoor dome with a projector developed by the Carl Zeiss
Works. Today, the Adler boasts three full-sized auditoriums,
a large collection of astronomical artifacts, and an important
research facility. The Adler actively brings the stars to the
people. One of your correspondents had the privilege of
observing both occurrences of the Transit of Venus there,
in 2004 and 2012. This phenomenon will not occur again
until 2117, over a century from now.
Hyde Park, on Chicago’s South Side, is perhaps best
known for the University of Chicago. The nearby Kenwood
District was once home to President Obama. As a young man,
past IAMFA president and conference host Bill Caddick
began his career in the steam tunnels below the University.
He was then known as “the kid.” Bill went on to become,
at age 36, the youngest Facility Director in the history of
the University.
The Field Museum of Natural History.
The Shedd Aquarium at dawn. The Adler Planetarium.

The Museum of Science and Industry
Like the Art Institute, the Museum of Science and Industry
occupies a facility originally constructed for the World’s
Columbian Exhibition of 1893. The building was the
Exhibition’s “Palace of Arts” and is one of the only remain-
ing structures from “the White City.” The museum houses
U-505—one of the only German submarines to survive the
Second World War—which was gallantly saved from scuttling
by the U.S. Navy in 1944, when it was captured.
Also on display at the Museum is the Apollo 8 capsule:
the first manned spacecraft to orbit the moon. Chicago-
area native Jim Lovell was a crew member on the Apollo 8
mission, and went on to command Apollo 13, which was
featured in Ron Howard’s 1995 film. It was Lovell who
uttered the famous words, “Houston, we have a problem.”
The Museum of Contemporary Art
Located at the northern end of the Magnificent Mile is the
Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA). With its beginnings
in the 1960s, the MCA currently houses an extensive collec-
tion of post-Second World War art objects. The MCA’s
current facility, designed by architect Josef Paul Kleihues,
opened to the public in 1996. In 2014, the MCA set new
attendance records with its exhibition celebrating the life
of pop sensation David Bowie.
We will keep you updated in future issues of Papyrus,
and on the website, with last-minute additions to venues
we’ll visit for social activities, for the guest program, as
well as information on the educational program for the
conference. We do plan on offering an optional extra day of
tours on the Thursday of Conference week, and will provide
details on that as soon as they are nailed down. Until then,
please pencil September 20–24, 2015. We have a few
surprises up our sleeve that we don’t want you to miss.
Come see where IAMFA was born!
Bill Caddick is VP, Department of Physical Plant, and Patrick Jones is
Manager, Off-Site Facilities and Energy at the Art Institute of Chicago.
They will be our hosts for the 25th Annual IAMFA Conference.
The Museum of Science and Industry.
The Museum of Contemporary Art.

T
he 2014 Benchmarking Work-
shop was a special treat for those
attending the IAMFA conference
in Edinburgh, Scotland this year. In
previous years, the workshop has been
held in a hotel conference room, but
this year the event was hosted by Jack
Plumb and held in the Reading Room
of the National Library of Scotland
(NLS). Surrounded by the Library’s
priceless collection, participants
engaged in an active, spirited, dialogue
to exchange best practices from their
institutions. What a special venue!
“Benchmarking is more than data
collection. The real value for the par-
ticipants is in understanding how other
organizations are doing similar jobs
for less cost or with a higher quality,”
says Keith McClanahan of Facility Issues.
“That is really what the benchmarking
workshop is all about.” The workshop
provides a forum for networking,
finding others with similar issues
and opportunities, and sharing best
practices that can be implemented
by participants.
Each institution was invited to make
a short presentation on recent changes,
issues, and what is going well. During
this roundtable discussion, members get
a good understanding of the problems
at each institution, and it’s always sur-
prising to see how much they all have
in common. Nearly everyone seems to
have issues with attracting and retain-
ing electricians, mechanics, building
engineers, and janitorial staff. Some
participants discussed training options
that they had started to help with this
shortfall. Others reported that they are
using more contractors to supplement
in-house staff. All agreed that this is a
problem that is just going to get worse
in future, as retirements accelerate and
the existing workforce ages out.
Energy costs and their budgetary
impact were also very hot topics. Most
of the participants reported increased
utility rates, along with more extreme
weather. That combination increased
both consumption and costs for many.
We discussed options to create consor-
tiums to leverage power purchases,
water savings initiatives, recycling,
and salvage programs.
2014 Benchmarking Practices
and Learning Workshop
By Keith McClanahan
Jack Plumb addresses attendees at the
Benchmarking and Learning Workshop.
Attendees at the Benchmarking and Learning Workshop.
Kendra Gastright addresses attendees.

Dave Samec, of the National Gallery
of Art, discussed an ongoing filter
evaluation project that was utilizing
more compact rigid filters. All options
are under consideration to achieve the
energy reduction targets stipulated by
an Executive Order. Dave also shared
his humorous experience with social
networking. On a very cold day at the
National Gallery, a large plume of
steam was visible. Twitter accounts
mistakenly reported a smoke incident
at the National Gallery, and Dave had
to navigate through Twitter to learn
about it. A quick show of hands indi-
cated that Dave was not the only person
in the room without a Twitter account;
hardly anyone else present had one.
Jack Plumb provided both a presen-
tation and a tour of the NLS mechanical
spaces. One of the most significant
reasons the NLS has achieved energy
utilization reductions, is the wider
range of operating temperatures and
humidity that have been agreed to by
the collections staff. Following consul-
tation with NLS Collection Care col-
leagues, the Library decided on the
following operational criteria:
• 15°C (59°F) to 20°C (68°F)
• 40% RH to 60% RH
The wider range of operating
criteria and targeted mechanical system
upgrades has significantly improved
energy utilization at the NLS.
Jack discussed and presented
the application of the Turbomiser
Compressor. This machine has a
compressor rotor held in a magnetic
field, which means it is infinitely variable
for load capability and contains no oil.
All of the participants were able to tour
the mechanical equipment rooms and
see this compressor.
As often happens when touring a
facility, some of the participants just
cannot seem to keep their hands off
the equipment. The equipment space is
crowded, and it is easy to get distracted.
Note the hearing protection dispenser
on the wall in the photo at the bottom.
Can you guess how many facility
managers it takes to replace the cover
of the earplug dispenser? Just a note:
Bill was not the only person who
knocked it off.
One of the items we collect after
every benchmarking workshop is a
comment and feedback form. It was
refreshing to read these comments
and note that this was a rewarding and
productive workshop for all attendees.
Everyone indicated they would attend a
workshop again, that the topics covered
were relevant and useful, and that the
workshop added value to the Confer-
ence. Participants said that this was one
of the high points of the conference
and a great opportunity for networking.
Thanks to everyone who attended
and helped make this a successful
workshop.
Keith McClanahan is Principal at Facility
Issues Inc., which administers IAMFA’s
Annual Benchmarking Exercise. Keith can
be reached at keithmcc@facilityissues.com
Dave Samec discusses ongoing filter
evaluation project.
Keith McClanahan, Facility Issues, Inc.Bill Caddick reaches for ear plugs.
Jack Plumb takes attendees on a tour of
the NLS Plant.
Turbomiser Compressor.
Free-cooling heat exchanger at the National
Library of Scotland.

SPIE UK provide energy focused,
safety and environmentally focused
solutions through multi-technical
and support services from initial
design, through installation,
testing, commissioning to long
term maintenance and facilities
management. SPIE Matthew Hall,
SPIE WHS, Garside Laycock, Alard
Electrical Ltd, SPIE FS Northern
(UK) and SPIE Power & Nuclear UK
represent the operations of SPIE
within the UK. Together, they employ
almost 3000 employees from 28
regional offices throughout the UK.
SPIE UK are part of the SPIE
Group, the independent European
leader in electrical and mechanical
engineering and HVAC services,
energy and communication systems.
SPIE enhances the quality of life by
helping local and regional authorities
and companies design, build,
operate and maintain facilities that
are more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly.
SPIE’s 37,000 employees work from nearly 500 locations
in 31 countries and in 2013 SPIE posted production of
€4.6 billion over its four strategic segments “Energies”,
“e-fficient buildings”, “Smart City” and “Industry
Services” and generated adjusted operating profit (EBITA)
of €298 million.
For more information contact:
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Or visit us at: www.spieuk.com
Your Partner in FM
is to maintain your environmental conditions
to the highest possible standards with the aim
of maximising the life expectancy of your
collections, by providing you with passionate,
highly trained engineering and management
teams.
Contact us at www.ecg-facilities.com
ECG Facilities Services is a proud sponsor of the
24th Annual IAMFA Conference in Scotland 2014

THE 24TH ANNUAL IAMFA CONFERENCE

International Association of Museum Facility Administrators
membership offers invaluable professional benefits for its
hundreds of facility managers of archives, libraries, museums
and other cultural institutions.
Benefits of IAMFA Membership:
• Annual IAMFA Conferences
• Free Subscription to Triennial Papyrus Magazine
• Benchmarking Exercises
• Earn Continuing Education Units
• Network with Your Peers
• Exclusive Job Postings
. . . and more!
Join IAMFA and give your career a boost!
For more information on IAMFA benefits and membership
categories or to become a member, please go to
http://newiamfa.org/membership-benefits.php
Email: IAMFA1990@gmail.com
There are several membership categories.
Please visit the IAMFA website to select
the category that applies to you.
Become a Member
of IAMFA

A
s architects and engineers specializing in museum
facilities, we are often faced with requests from
owners of rare collections to design facilities that meet
requirements not covered by current codes or standards. One
such instance involved work for the Library of Congress’
National Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper,
Virginia. A major benefactor had purchased the primarily
underground and abandoned Richmond Federal Reserve
emergency preparedness center, just outside Culpeper.
The plan was to adapt the facility for use by the Library to
house, conserve, and protect its vast collection of motion
picture, broadcast, and recorded sound material.
This facility was to contain all of the Library’s collections
in as sustainable an environment as possible—including
their collection of highly combustible and explosive nitrate
film. Because of the film’s volatility, NFPA 40 was specifically
written to define how nitrate film must be stored, limiting
not only the amount of nitrate film to be stored in each
four-hour fire-rated vault, but also limiting the size of the
vaults. What NFPA 40 also required was 100% outside air
into each vault, without crossover to, or return through
any other vault, in order to prevent contamination from
spreading from one vault to the next.
This was, of course, highly inefficient in energy terms,
especially considering that there would be 124 vaults. With
our consulting engineers and the benefactor’s sponsorship,
we designed a damper system, tested it through FM Global,
gained the approval of the Authorities Having Jurisdiction
(AHJs), and had the system accepted by NFPA as an accept-
able nitrate-film storage alternative that enables return air
to the vaults, thus saving major operational costs.
The system was also applied in the design of 122 nitrate
storage vaults for the UCLA Film Archive in Santa Clarita.
The UCLA facility was also financially supported by the
same benefactor and was approved by the AHJs of both
Santa Clarita and Los Angeles County. The damper system
is available on the market for applications that require
highly rated fire containment.
Recently, we were asked by a major film studio to design
their new film vaults, which would contain their “crown
jewels.” With the request, came a strong desire not to have
any water-suppression system—even pre-action systems—
in their vaults. Water is highly detrimental to film, as well
as to other collections. However, since AHJs have routinely
required water-based suppression systems—at least as a
back-up to a clean agent suppression system, as in the case
of the Culpeper project for non-nitrate collections—we
needed to develop a design that would be approved by the
AHJ, while omitting water suppression within the vaults.
In considering the design and working with the studio
and the AHJ, we felt that if the vaults could be designed in
The “Russian Doll” and Other Unique
Fire Protection Approaches for
Irreplaceable Collections
By Hal Davis
The Library of Congress National Audio-Visual Conservation Center.
Upper mechanical space of Nitrate Vaults. Section at Nitrate Vaults.

such a way that they would be completely insulated—without
penetrations for structure or other utilities through the top
of the vault enclosure—and made water tight, then we could
place them inside an outer shell that was fully covered by a
water based pre-action suppression system. Thus was born
the idea of the “Russian Doll” design. The inner shell is
protected with only a two-stage clean-agent suppression
system, and the outer shell is protected by a pre-action
water-based protection system.
Additionally, we structured the outer enclosure with
deep trusses that spanned the insulated, watertight and
structured vaults beneath. The depth of the truss gave us
enough room for an interstitial space housing all of the
high-performance mechanical/electrical equipment to meet
required conditions in the vaults below and in adjoining
personnel/processing spaces.
We covered the trusses and outer walls with economical
enclosure materials, and made the resulting buffer a semi-
conditioned space above the vaults. By providing circulation
on the perimeter of the vaults, we further cushioned the
impact of solar and weather conditions on the inner vaults.
The outer skin of sloped metal roof and rain screen siding
thus became the first line of defense against UV and weather
migration, as well as intrusion. The exterior building skin
extends the life of the waterproof membrane, and equalizes
pressure differences between the inside and outside of
the vaults.
The box-within-a-box design also helped increase the
seismic performance of the structure, enabling the design
to exceed seismic code requirements. The lighter outer
structure was designed with braced frames and larger
footings to act separately from the inner concrete-insulated
structure of the vaults.
The concept serves a multitude of purposes, including
adding an extra layer of security, service circulation,
increased insulation, moisture protection, and improved
seismic response. The concept can be applied to any rare,
irreplaceable collections.
Hal Davis, FAIA, is a Senior VP with SmithGroupJJr, and leads
their Cultural Studio in Washington, D.C. He has over 35 years’
experience in the design and construction of technologically
complex and highly technical facilities. He can be reached at
hal.davis@smithgroupjjr.com.
Exterior of studio’s film vaults.
THANK
YOU
To our sponsors,
who provide
invaluable support for
everything we do:

Abstract
The small archive at the Arnamagnæan
Institute has almost completely passive
air-conditioning, due to its placement
between a corridor in the permanently
warm Copenhagen University building
in Copenhagen, Denmark, and the
building’s outer wall. It is well insulated
on the side next to the warm building,
and thinly insulated towards the out-
vside. As a result, its temperature is
approximately one-third between the
interior building temperature, and
the average outside temperature.
The annual average temperature
in the archive is above the annual
average outside temperate, making
the annual average relative humidity
(RH) automatically lower than that
outside at about 50%. The day-to-day
RH remains steady throughout the
year, because of humidity buffering
on the walls, and by the hygroscopic
content of the archive.
Fine control of RH is provided by
pumping in outside air when it is, by
chance, at the right water-vapour con-
tent to push the archive RH towards its
target 50%. The pump’s energy con-
sumption is negligible, but heat from
the usually warmer building interior
passes through the archive to the out-
side, so it does use energy. The RH has
remained within the envelope of 48%
to 58% over a period of 7 years. The
temperature has varied within the range
of 14–24°C with a gentle annual cycle.
Introduction
There is a small archive of medieval man-
uscripts in a building at Copenhagen
University (Figure 1), with an unusual
climate-control solution. It was designed
from the outset not to use air condi-
tioning. Instead, its relative humidity
(RH) control relies on a combination
of humidity-buffering from the archive’s
contents, and a few degrees of winter
heating due to leakage from the
permanently warmed building that
partially surrounds it.
The temperature varies throughout
the year, being close to the inside tem-
perature in summer, but around a third
less than the indoor temperature in
mid-winter. The amplitude of this
annual temperature cycle is controlled
by the relative thickness of the insu-
lation against the building interior
and against the outside air. A cutaway
diagram of the construction is shown
in Figure 2; the interior is shown in
Figure 3; and a schematic drawing of
the climate control principle is shown
in Figure 4. In this article, we analyze
the climatic performance of the archive
since 2006.
Construction Materials
The structure of the archive is rein-
forced concrete. Outside this structure,
there is thermal insulation of varying
thicknesses. Attached to the inside
surface of the walls is a 50 mm layer
of “gasbeton” blocks. This is a porous
calcium-aluminium silicate with a
fibrous structure. It is the best humidity
buffer among orthodox construction
materials.
The blocks have been coated with
a single layer of silicate paint, which
prevents dust while allowing air to
diffuse into the blocks. The floor is
concrete, hardened with fluosilicate.
The ceiling is 4 layers of 13 mm gypsum
board, with insulation above. The
shelving is hard enamelled steel. The
massive concrete walls were specified
for physical rather than climatic
security, but add useful heat capacity.
The door opens into the office area,
so air infiltration is mainly from the
building rather than from the outside.
Climate Control of the
Arnamagnæan Archive
By Tim Padfield, Morten Ryhl-Svendsen, Poul Klenz Larsen, Mette Jakobsen and Lars Aasbjerg Jensen
Figure 1. The building at Copenhagen
University housing the Arnamagnæan
Institute. The archive is the room behind
the windowless portion of the long façade.
Figure 2. A cutaway diagram showing the
structure of the archive. The insulation
towards the interior of the building is thicker
than the insulation on the outer walls.
Figure 3. A view of the interior of the
archive. It measures 10 ¥ 4 ¥ 3 m high.
The lobby is visible beyond the armoured
and insulated door. The duct for pumped
outside air is just visible above and to the
left of the door.

The Climate Control
Principle
Relative humidity is controlled by
ensuring that the annual average
temperature within the archive is
about eight degrees above the annual
average outside temperature. This will
automatically give an average RH in
the archive of around 50%.
Because the room is nearly airtight
and full of humidity-buffering paper
and parchment documents, the archive
can cruise over long periods of disequi-
librium between inside and outside
water vapour concentration, without the
RH changing much. This means that
the winter temperature can be higher
than the theoretical ideal value, and
the summer temperature lower.
The archive temperature excess
over ambient is kept low in summer
and high in winter by the balance of
heat flow into the archive from the
inhabited building. The building sur-
rounds four surfaces of the archive, and
the heat flow to the outside is through
the two exterior walls.
The insulation’s thickness has been
calculated to ensure that the archive
temperature is approximately the day-
time temperature of the outside air in
summer, decreasing to about 14°C in
winter. Without humidity buffering,
this would give a low RH in winter of
around 30%, and a high summer RH
of around 70%. However, humidity
buffering is provided by the archive
construction and by the packaging
materials, as well as by the archived
items. This humidity buffering only
works if the air infiltration rate is low. In
this archive, it is about 0.1 air changes
per hour.
There is mechanical fine control of
the climate to supplement the humidity
buffering. Occasionally, particularly in
summer, the water-vapour content of
outside air, if pumped into the archive,
will push the interior RH towards the
50% target. The pump increases the
air exchange rate from 0.1 to about
0.5 per hour. It is activated by the
building management computer.
Sensors inside the archive and
outside the building first calculate the
moisture content of air at the target
value 50% RH, as well as the current
archive temperature. Then the actual
water-vapour content is calculated for
both inside and outside air, using rela-
tive humidity and temperature sensors.
If the outside water-vapour content
is closer to the target than the inside
concentration, the pump is activated.
It passes outside air through a filter for
dust and pollutants, then releases it
at the far end of the room, to exhaust
through a vent near the door.
The balance of water-vapour content
inside and out is shown in Figure 5 as
shaded areas above and below the zero
line. Shading above the line indicates
excess water vapour in the outside air.
The energy used by the pump is negli-
gible, but the heat energy moving
through the exterior walls of the archive
amounts to about 14 kWh/m3 per year.
Figure 4. A perspective sketch showing
how the archive temperature is set by
competing heat flows through the interior
and exterior walls. The RH is fine-tuned by
pumping in air when by chance the outside
air has suitable water-vapour content.
Figure 5. The year 2010 in the archive. The red segments of the RH trace at the top indicate
periods when outside air was pumped in to raise the air exchange rate from 0.1 per hour
to 0.5 per hour. The shaded strips identify major pumping events, and show how they
correlate with the difference in water-vapour content between the outside and the archive
air. The dashed horizontal line marks the target RH.
Figure 6. A record of the archive climate over the past seven years, compared with the
monthly average outside temperature and the outside temperature span. The spikes show
the climate in the conservator’s office when the logger was retrieved to extract its data.

Comparison of Measured
Results and Theoretical
Performance
There is an excess of water vapour
within the archive, averaged over the
year. To investigate this mystery, we
have to look at the mixing ratio of
the inside and outside air masses.
The average mixing ratio inside
should be the same as outside; other-
wise, there must be an independent
addition of water to the inside air. This
seems to be the case. The outside-to-
inside mixing ratios were 44:56. This is
the ratio of areas under the curves in
Figure 7. The most significant infiltra-
tion is from the corridor, and from the
adjacent office. Also, workers within the
archive will add water vapour directly.
Air Pollution
An unventilated room will accumulate
carbon dioxide from people within it.
The archive is active, but not busy. Items
are fetched for study in the adjacent
reading room. The spikes of carbon
dioxide are detectable, and the concen-
tration is continuously monitored for
both safety of people and security
against unauthorised entry. Typically,
there is one visit per day; this usually only
raises the concentration to 600 ppm,
which is acceptable. The limit for per-
manently occupied spaces is generally
put at 1000 ppm, depending on local
building regulations. The RH also rises
briefly, but is buffered by absorption
into the archive materials.
Pollution from outside is intercepted
by a carbon filter in the pumping system.
Pollution generated internally—prin-
cipally acetic acid vapour—is absorbed
by recirculation through the same
carbon filter.
Conformity with Standards
At the time the archive was designed,
the internationally influential standard
for archives was British Standard
BS5454:2000. The temperature spec-
ification was very strict: choose any
temperature between 16 and 19°C, then
apply a variation limit of ±1°C to that
temperature. The RH allowance was
35% to 60%, with ±5% around the
chosen target. The archive nearly
achieves the RH standard. Recently,
the guidance has been relaxed con-
siderably, but not enough to retro-
regularise the temperature in this
archive. PD5454:2012 allows a tem-
perature span from 13°C to 20°C for
sensitive collections.
The archive temperature exceeds
this upper limit for nearly a quarter of
the time. The effect on the chemical
degradation rate is approximately
compensated by the lower winter tem-
perature: the same fraction of the time
is below 17°C. The minimum tempera-
ture was 13.5°C. The span of the annual
cycle is typically eleven degrees.
The 20°C upper limit advised by
PD5454 has no particular significance
for the chemical or physical stability of
artifacts, yet it is already used as a firm
specification. One should instead
follow the normal building engineers’
practice of specifying a temperature
that can be achieved while the local
weather is within its normal range,
while accepting that the outside
temperature will be unusually high
for short periods.
For Northern Europe, a reasonable
design target for passive climate control
of archives would be 25°C. This is
achievable without mechanical aid,
whereas 20°C is not easily achieved.
Such a limit is advocated in the joint
declaration of the International
Institute for Conservation (IIC) and
the conservation committee of the
International Council Of Museums
(ICOM-CC). This declaration (IIC 2014)
endorses previously existing guidelines
which set temperature limits at 16–25°C
(BIZOT) and 15–25°C (AICCM & AIC).
Conclusions
The archive has performed well in
providing a moderate climate. The RH
has remained within 6% of 50% for the
past seven years. This good performance
is not entirely attributable to the cun-
ning design. The winter temperature
is higher than it should be theoretically,
but works because the infiltrating air
has been humidified by human activity
within the building. The weather-
dependent pumping of outside air
has contributed largely to keeping
the RH down during the vulnerable
summer period.
The approximately ten-degree-
amplitude smooth annual cycle presents
no scientifically documented danger
to the collection. The 14°C minimum
in winter presents a small danger of
transiently high RH at the object sur-
face, when it is taken out to the reading
room. However, a brief acclimatisation
in an airtight insulated bag will entirely
eliminate this risk.
This principle of running the archive
with a temperature cycle that rises to
about the same as outside during the
summer but remains much warmer
than ambient in winter has also been
applied to free-standing archives. In
this case, it is necessary to maintain a
minimum temperature of around 14°C
in winter, depending on the local
climate. Only thermostat control is
necessary; the buffering by the archived
material will automatically ensure a
stable and moderate RH throughout
the year. A systematic treatment of the
physics of low-energy climate control
in archives and museum storage is
given in Padfield et al 2013. A moreFigure 7. The mixing ratio of the air outside and inside the archive.

IAMFA Papyrus Magazine Highlights Museum Facility Conference

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