The conservation and preservation implications of rapid response collecting may be extensive where items have been outdoors, or a collection is composed of a wide variety of materials or large number of items.
There are distinct phases to managing the conservation and ongoing preservation of a rapid response collection:
- The Protection and collection phase includes planning, information and equipment gathering.
- The Triage phase includes initial collection decisions, drying of sensitive items for transportation and moving the items to quarantine. Additional information is available on the 'Moving and drying items' page of this guidance.
- Drying and cleaning affected items. As the collection may have been created in conditions where there was little or no control over the exposure to pests and conditions likely to encourage mould growth, continued quarantine measures are essential when initial drying and cleaning operations are taking place. This is covered in 'Moving and drying items' and 'Cleaning and repair'.
- Conservation of the collection. This phase may take significant time, and involves maintaining the integrity and ethical sensitivities of rapid response collections. This is covered in 'Cleaning and repair'.
- Storage of collections
We strongly advise that you read these sections in order: 'Protection and collection', 'Triage', 'Moving and drying items', 'Cleaning and repair', and 'Storage'.