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Re: Water damage (Windows as sources)



About a decade ago we learned that the window seals on
the upper 3 floors of our building leaked during
storms driven by high winds.  Luckily there are no
windows on the south facade but there are a huge
number of windows on the other three sides of the
building, in the office and collection storage area of
the building.
We mostly store collections on floors 3-6 and are very
careful about what goes into the basement because of
flooding.  Geology is the only area with large amounts
of collections stored in the basement.

While the museum has struggled to convince Milwaukee
County to replace the nearly 40-year old aluminum
window frames that are the culprits, we've instituted
a policy that forbids using the nice wide interior
window ledges for storage of anything of value that
could be damaged.

This includes personal electronic items such as am/fm
radios and other audio equipment, coffee makers, etc.
but is especially intended to prevent people from
using the sills or putting tables immediately below
the windows with collections material.

On stormy afternoon in mid July 199?, a curator, on
vacation in California at the time, had the set of
Zoology catalog volumes, dating from the 1880's to the
1970's, on a table just below the window sill.  The
water was rapidly puddling on the sill when I checked
his office as part of the MPM Disaster Response team.
A P.A. announcement had been made about the problem as
soon as it was discovered but this curator was away
and nobody in his dept. thought to check his office.

The reason the catalogs were there -- nobody wanted to
work from the microfilm copies the museum had.  This
curator's student assistants had been doing data entry
into the computerized catalog he was creating from the
originals all spring.  The volumes were just awaiting
the return of the students in the fall for the project
to resume.

Hey, it could have been worse, at least we had the
microfilm copies in the vault storage.  And before
anybody asks -- at our institution, collection catalog
volumes are the property of the curatorial
departments, not the Registrar's Office or the
Archives.  Only the accession volumes are under the
Registrar's control.

Internal ice-buildup on the windows (when the
temperatures go below zero F.) is another recurring
problem and the melt-off when the heating comes on in
the morning and the ice melts rapidly has also been a
source of damage to paper items and electronic items
stored on the ledges, causing periodic reissues of the
policy concerning use of window sills as storage
places.  Someday, the windows and their frames will
all be replaced -- in the meantime we check for leaks
and watch the mold buildup during damp times of the
year.

Judy Turner
Director, Library and Archives
Milwaukee Public Museum

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