Practical applications of sebera's isoperms for estimating the impact on permanence of the transfer of important archival documents to more suitable storage conditions

This paper presents the results of simulations of the impact of indoor climate conditions, temperature and relative humidity, concerning the relocation of more than 10,000 historical documents, including those from the Supervisory Board of Artistic and Scientific Expeditions in Brazil, an archive recognized worldwide and particularly by UNESCO through the Memory of the World Programme. The documents are presently stored in a room without control of RH and T but are expected to be transferred to a repository at 23-25°C and 60-65% RH. Results from simulations indicate a major impact on their permanence. It was concluded that under present conditions the document's permanence is markedly affected over a year, due to the severe temperature and RH regime to which they have been exposed, and which is fairly typical of tropical regions.