AmazingMeagenA charming garden design for a parsonage near Portsmouth, UK
Lambeth Palace Library, QAB/7/6/uncatalogued
Lovely map of Herefordshire in a late 16th century manuscript, Lambeth Palace Library MS 521
This volume is being condition reported before being displayed later in 2026.
An example of the Canadian Conservation Institute's Agent of Deterioration - Pests
A substantial nibble from this marble paper covered pamphlet binding at Lambeth Palace Library, Arches/L/20
#Digital ⚓️ #Vagabond 🦈Extremophile molds: The hidden threat eating away at museum treasures (Scientific American)
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-extremophile-molds-are-destroying-museum-artifacts/
My favorite line:
> Letting go of the shame is the only way we can learn about these molds
Holds true across the board in this field: physical or digital.
#Digipres #Archives #GLAM #Entropy #Conservation #CollectionCare
Exhibition Room prepared for decanting. Installation, necessarily, takes ages. Decanting is fairly swift, even when purposely working slow.
Vitrines covered, boxes in place, keys ready, steps available, radio tuned and playing.
Seven cases, approximately 30 items, took two of us about an hour.
Next steps include condition checks, light exposure analysis and recording.
Next installation will start January 2026.
#CollectionCare
#Exhibitions
#MedievalManuscripts
#IlluminatedManuscripts
RegistrarTrekLet’s talk about data security: Restoring a TMS database
So, yesterday we took a backup of our TMS database. Today, we learn how to restore it. This is also a check you should be doing after having taken your first backup and also regularly after you have taken backups because like I have mentioned here otherwise you can’t be sure you have backed up anything. Or, like a friend of mine who deals with a lot of IT messes put it:
“I bought a book!”
“Are there words inside it?”
“Huh? Of course. I didn’t check, but there are always words inside a book, right?”
Before you haven’t checked, you just assume, you aren’t sure. And if there is one rule every collections professional knows by heart it is this: Never assume, always make sure!
Step 1: Again, log into the server you want the database to restore to and open Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio
You already know how to do that by now. If not, re-read step 1 in this article.
Step 2: Navigate to the Restore menu
Go to the folder “Databases”, right-click on it and select “Restore Database…”
Step 3: Chose your backup file
Up comes a rather bleak screen:
Go to “Device” and click on the three dots …
You get another rather bleak screen from which you choose “Add…”
You are getting a look at your file system from which you select the backup file you want to restore from. You might remember I cautioned you to store it in a place you can easily find it in Step 6 in in the previous article, right?
When you have found the right file, you click “OK”.
On the next screen you also click “OK”.
Step 4: Restore your database
Now you are on this screen again, but now it is populated with your chosen backup, including the date and time it would restore to:
You can see how my database “Leer” (yours might be called “TMS” or something else) is showing up both as the source and as the destination. If you really want to overwrite your current database this is fine, for example because something went horribly wrong with your current database and you want to restore it to an older version.
But if you just want to test if our backup file is okay, you don’t want to do that! Imagine something went wrong with the backup. We would be overwriting our totally fine current database with a corrupted backup! Big mistake!
So, for testing, instead of the “Leer” as destination I simply typed another name. I chose “TMSTEST”:
Then I clicked “OK”.
The database will now be restored to a new destination. If the backup file is okay and you have enough storage space you will get this screen after a while:
You can now click “OK”.
Step 5: Test your database
You should now see an additional database in your databases folder (mine shows up, of course, as “TMSTEST” because I called it that way):
If that worked fine, your backup file is okay. But just because I am a bit anal about my data, just to check, just to make sure, I run the mother of all TMS queries: “Select * From Objects”.
Only when it runs smoothly and the number of objects I get back matches my expectations, I am satisfied.
Housekeeping
Backup files are rather large. Which is logical, because they contain all your valuable data, right? So, after testing to make sure my backup is okay, I deleted that new database again by right-clicking on TMSTEST and choosing “Delete” so it doesn’t clog my server:
Also, because the backup files are so large, I tend to compress them before I move them to a different server. I use the software 7-Zip for it since it proved to be rather reliable (https://www.7-zip.org/). If you don’t have it on your server, you need to install it, first.
Go to your Windows Explorer and find your backup file. Right-click on it, choose “7-Zip” and select the option “Add to [whatever your backup is called].7z”.
You can now see how the backup is compressed. Wait until it is done (fetch a coffee or a tea, this might take a while, depending on the size of your database).
After it is finished, you will see a second file on your file system:
You will notice how much smaller the compressed file is. This is much easier to move to another server, unpack, and restore there, right?
Because I am paranoid I will move the .7z file to a cloud storage that I trust now and try if I can unpack it there without issues. If that is the case I can go back and delete the .bak file and just retain the smaller .7z file.
Take your backups, take them to a safe location, and take good care!
Angela
#collectionCare #collectionsManagement #dataBase #dataSecurity #database #documentation #MuseumDocumentation
Let’s talk about data security: How to back-up your TMS database
This is a step-by-step guide on how to backup your database if you are using a product of The Museum System (TMS) by Gallery Systems. If you use a different system it will work differently. Ask your vendor about it.
Step 1: Log into your database server and open Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio
You usually find it fastest if you start typing “SQL Server Management…” into the Windows search box.
Step 2: Enter your credentials
You will be prompted to enter your login credentials. If you are on NT Authentication usually all you have to do is click on “Connect”. If you have another form of authentication you will have to enter those login details. Your IT will tell you what to enter in that case.
Step 3: Find your database
In the tree hierarchy, open the folder “Databases” and find your database. It is usually called something like “TMS”. In my case it is called “Leer”.
Step 4: Navigate to the backup menu
Right click on your database, choose “Tasks” and then “Back Up…”
If that option is greyed out, you might not have the rights to do this. in which case you should talk to your IT so you get those rights.
Step 5: Chose your backup method
You will get to this screen:
Here you can choose if you want to do a full or differential backup (we talked about that here). You select that in the drop-down “Backup type”. We chose “Full” for this backup.
As a destination, usually “Disk” is fine, since you probably want to have the backup on your computer first and then transfer it to a cloud later.
Sometimes you will see a backup file already in the screen below that. If that’s the case, remove it, first.
Then click on “Add…”
Step 6: Add the file you want to back up to
By default, Microsoft suggest a rather cryptic sub-folder for your backups. I’d recommend adding a folder in a more prominent place that you can easily find and back up to there. You can see mine being “M:\Backups”.
Enter a file name for your backup. This can be the date you took it (Best Practice is to note the date in a year-month-day format so you can easily sort by date if you have multiple backup files) or a significant pointer to when you took it, for example “BeforeUpgradeTo995” if this is your backup before upgrading to a new version. Don’t forget to add “.bak” as a file ending, otherwise you might run into difficulties to restore it, later.
You can see that I called mine “AfterCI2025.bak” because it is the backup I took after adding a significant amount of information from our user conference.
Once you entered the name, hit “OK”.
Step 7: Take your backup
After that you just need to click on “OK” and your backup will be taken. If you have enough disc space in your chosen location, all is fine, otherwise it will throw an error message.
That was it. Wasn’t too hard, was it? And now you are good to go and bring your database to a safe location. I will do another post on how to compress the backup and restore it on another server.
Take your backup and take care!
Angela
#backup #cataloging #collectionCare #collections #collectionsManagement #dataSecurity #database #DatabaseCareIsCollectionsCare #howTo #museum #museums #security
Heads up: Bug when buying Managing Previously Unmanaged Collections from Amazon
Two things happened today:
I finally got my author’s copies of Managing Previously Unmanaged Collections and I was notified that there is a problem with ordering the book from Amazon:
When you are ordering from Amazon.com and you are on the website of the paperback https://www.amazon.com/Managing-Previously-Unmanaged-Collections-Practical/dp/1538190648/ and then click on the “Kindle” version you are directed to the old 2016 edition of the book.
Conversely, if you go to Amazon in Germany or the UK and are on the “Kindle” version https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Angela-Kipp-ebook/dp/B0D7R1N7KC/ and then switch to the paperback version you get the old version of the paperback.
Just a heads-up, since I learned today that people bought the old version by accident that way.
I do, however recommend buying from your local bookshop or directly from the publisher (https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781538190630/Managing-Previously-Unmanaged-Collections-A-Practical-Guide-for-Museums-Second-Edition) anyway.
#book #bookstodon #collectionCare #collectionsManagement #museum #registrar
Arno Kuipers"It’s Not Easy Being Green – The Challenge of Having Poisonous Arsenic Containing Books in a National Library Collection"
Artikel (#openacces) van de collega's van #Collectiebehoud #Collectioncare van @kbnationalebibliotheek over #arsenicum als kleurstof op #boekbanden e.d. In #Studies in #Conservation:
It might sound trivial at first that a beetle isn’t a household article but if you look closer, it isn’t. When a coffee cup breaks during a move you just go ahead and buy a new one. It gets annoying if it belonged to a set that went out of production a while ago. It becomes an irreplaceable loss if said coffee cup was connected to a special memory, for example because it belonged to your great-grandmother or because your child made it themselves.
Museum collections are pretty similar to the last case but now it isn’t just about the memory of one person or a family but about the history of humankind. Which means that the loss is far more grave.
Now, when it comes to collections of natural history an additional aspect comes into play: here, the loss of one object equals an irreplaceable loss of information that is important for current and future research. This is of course also true for art and history collections but in these cases at least the loss can be tempered if the object was well documented and digitized. Our beetle, on the other hand, is a repository in itself. Only this one specimen was collected at precisely that time and precisely that place and preserves all information about its environment at that time. No form of documentation and digitization can anticipate all the questions future generations of researchers will have. The preservation of that information is only possible by preserving the beetle itself.
Beetles in a museum collection, photo by Markéta Klimešová via PixabayNot all beetles belong in a collection
Because the preservation of the objects is so important generations of researchers tried to keep them out of harm’s way. Now, natural history collections are especially attractive to pests and therefore every biocide the chemical research and industry discovered in the last centuries was used in them. DDT with insect collections, arsenic with taxidermies, mercury in herbaria, from nerve toxins to organophosphates you are handling everything that can harm your health or even kill you.
In case of a collections move this means you have to deal with two aspects absent from a conventional household or office move:
- You have to prevent pests from getting to your objects during transit. This means that the items you are moving need to be packed the way no pests can get inside and that you have airlocks and quarantine stations on your transport routes so you can be sure nothing got infested.
- When planning the work to be done in preparation for the move you have to keep in mind that you are handling toxic goods. In the past the use of biocides was rarely documented and the only way to be sure what you are dealing with is gauging your collection before you actually start working. This will tell you which precautions you have to take previous to packing and moving and what you have to account for in the new storage.
On top of that there is another danger: the objects themselves. Some of them are toxic or radioactive and therefore you have to treat, transport, and store them differently than your common coffee cup.
Packaged beetles – No package tourists
Transports get quickly done if things can be standardized. You know that from moving house: if you can use standard packing crates they will fit seamlessly into the truck. All you have to do is pack them in a save and reasonable way and avoid overloading.
In natural history collections there are many things that can be standardized: Our beetle will most likely be stored with a lot of its fellows in one drawer and this drawer can be neatly packed and moved with other, similar drawers. But a lot of other specimen don’t do their collections managers the same favor.
Many are stored in glass containers filled with alcohol or formaldehyde which means they are not only fragile but also sensitive to vibrations and their contents inflammable and noxious. You are also not allowed to transport them through a water protection area, which you have to account for when planning the shipment routes.
This is but one example of the many special, non-standard cases you have to deal with when planning the move of a natural history collection. Some specimens are so heavy you need to hire specialized riggers to move them. Others are so fragile you need to get special crates built for them. Many are both heavy and fragile. Then others are preserved by freezing them and if you want to move them you have to make sure the cold chain stays uninterrupted. A taxidermized giraffe or the skeleton of a whale can keep a whole team of experts occupied for days just to find the best way to move it.
Storing beetles – Not a case for your local furniture store
If you have read this far you already guessed it: if you want to store a natural history collection then this storage space needs to fulfill a lot of criteria. It has to deter pests, have a stable room climate, needs a good air circulation and has to be equipped with furniture that allows objects to sit in them for centuries without being damaged yet be easily accessible for research.
Different kinds of specimen collections can have very different requirements. High humidity is a problem for most of them because it enables mold and attracts pests but a room being too dry can cause problems as well. Fluctuations in temperature can rupture the skins on taxidermy specimens and cause fossils to break. An insufficient air ventilation might cause a high concentration of toxics in a room and/or introduce mold. Good collections storage provides the appropriate climate for each of its collections. They are built the way that even in case of an emergency that results in failure of all technology a good storage climate can be re-established by conventional means in such a short time that no permanent damage or even loss of objects happens.
Accessibility is part of a safe collections storage. You need to be able to remove one specimen in a way the other objects stored with it stay unharmed. Our beetle in its drawer is a real space saver, here. Other specimens need far more space. For example, it has to be possible to remove a specimen stored in a jar of liquid from its shelf without having to move other containers. This means you can’t fill your shelves to maximum packing density and you need more storage space but for a good collections storage this is inevitable.
For all these problems there are good solutions but they are not available in your local furniture or hardware store. There are experts and manufacturers who have specialized on these topics.
Whatever is planned for your final storage has consequences for your move: If your beetle is right now in a drawer that is contaminated by pesticides or simply doesn’t fit into your new storage furniture this beetle and its comrades have to move to a new clean and fitting drawer before the move. It is rather common that one big collections move means a lot of smaller moves beforehand.
Ask the beetle anytime
When art or history collections move they often put parts of their activities in collections, exhibitions, and research on hold. A natural history collection that is part of an international network of research institutions in most cases can’t afford this comparative luxury.
In effect, this means that the move has to be planned and executed very different from other moves. It isn’t possible to pack whole collections and store them in a compact and largely non-accessible way until the big move takes place. It must be possible to get access to every collection and every specimen at any given time.
In general, there are two ways of dealing with that: You can limit the time an object is actually crated and in transit, which means that preparation, packing, moving, unpacking, and storing is a matter of just a few days. Or you can crate the specimen in a way that access is possible at any time and without endangering the object itself and the objects packed with it even during the move. Both possibilities have advantages and disadvantages but they both mean that you need more space both in the location you are moving from and in the one you are moving to. It means as well that you need more time and more staff compared to other types of collection moves.
To sum up: Why moving beetles needs a sum of money
With your own experience of moving houses in mind the amount of time, money, and staff it takes to move a museum collection seems to be comparably high. An impression that quickly vanishes when you know the reasons.
Make no mistake, no museum collection is as such “easier” or “harder” to move. Every type has its own, unique challenges. But natural history collections are for sure among the most complex ones you will encounter. And they have a disadvantage: while everybody intuitively understands that you can’t just throw the Mona Lisa on the back of an old truck, a beetle is at first sight “just” a beetle. It isn’t at all obvious that this beetle is a repository that holds perhaps more important and undiscovered information than the well researched and documented artwork by Leonardo da Vinci.
This adds an additional challenge to a move that is already made complex by the variety and sheer masses of objects that have to be brought safely from A to B: the general public has to understand that a beetle is not a coffee cup.
Perhaps this article can help a bit with that.
Angela Kipp
#collectionCare #collectionsManagement #collectionsMove #documentation #insectCollections #naturalHistoryCollections
