Quantifying Housekeeping Challenge and Conservation Need

Abstract

This simple model, developed by conservators, assists in the challenge of making preventive conservation, housekeeping, and care of historic interiors and collections, physically and economically sustainable, in historic houses welcoming increasing volumes of visitors (a primary source of dust). It introduces objectivity into conservation advice and management decisions: how many collections care staff should each historic house ideally employ, and how large an annual budget is required to fund the non-wage costs of routine preventive and interventive conservation? Are staffing structures rational and consistent, and tailored to the individual and developing circumstances of multiple properties? Eight qualitative and quantitative criteria are each given a score from 1–4 in relation to their data ranges. The total scores for each property are converted to percentages, correlated with staffing structures, and used to estimate the requirements for daily, weekly and annual housekeeping and conservation cleaning. Selected data are used to measure housekeeping performance against weekly targets, and to rationalize the distribution of financial resources for preventive conservation and maintenance. The model can be adapted for use in any museum or heritage building which needs to assess and quantify the routine care of interiors and collections on open display to visitors.

Tuning and Effectiveness in Heritage Models

“…When models are fit for purpose and have clear practical application, they can have far-reaching implications. For example, models developed for the National Trust were able to assess the economics of dust [12] and housekeeping [13]. Lloyd's [13] research demonstrates how an easy-to-use, adaptable model in Microsoft Excel can aid with housekeeping and conservation decisions across a portfolio of historic homes.…”

“…For example, models developed for the National Trust were able to assess the economics of dust [12] and housekeeping [13]. Lloyd's [13] research demonstrates how an easy-to-use, adaptable model in Microsoft Excel can aid with housekeeping and conservation decisions across a portfolio of historic homes. However, many new models fail to gain traction in the wider heritage community, often due to a lack of awareness that the model exists and the type of information it could provide.…”

“…Model users must also grapple with model uncertainty. For example, in Lloyd's management model [13], errors may lead to a housekeeping allocation that is too small in some properties, such that individual property managers might feel under-resourced or, at other times, too large leading to over-resourcing. Although mathematical errors in models can be assessed, it is often difficult to understand how these errors might affect decisions.…”

“…An additional source of error can arise from biases within the model. Although Lloyd [13] tries to minimise the bias in inputs, outputs might be skewed towards overprotection rather than underprotection. However, some have argued that biases may be helpful, especially where the costs of action and inaction are very different [9].…”

“…Even the 30-year periods adopted as part of the notion of climate normals can seem long to heritage planners [49]. Budgets may be set over three-year timescales, or models might need to be tuned to the lifetime of maintenance and repair [13]. Thus, shorter planning horizons or recommendations for immediately implementable actions [17] will see an increasing need for effective models to consider reduced time periods.…”