Dust!

[Paul Pawlaczyk]

How often are the open displayed items in your museum dusted?

Additionally, if you can, please answer this question. Just speculate.
How often should open displayed items be dusted in general...controlled environment, non-arid climate.
Thanks.
=P=

[Randi]

Sometimes, just when they are visibly dusty. Or once a week, for the flat surfaces, which usually means they are dusty. We have two historic structures, one as a house museum, one as a museum museum, open seasonally. My thoughts are the main problems with dust are often abrasiveness, and pollutants that might be in it and cause trouble, particularly when it is humid. We aren't in a high pollution area. So we usually try to remove dust before it gets noticeable to visitors, but don't dust just because we put it on a schedule. We also usually don't have a crew of trained professionals to do the dusting, so that introduces a different element of risk when using trained volunteers. Serious cleaning is done about once a year, probably should be oftener, but that isn't going to happen with existing conditions. Generally there is no cleaning during the closed season.

[Paul Pawlaczyk]

Thank you for your reply.
=P=