Barbara Appelbaum Books

Preserve, Protect, and Defend

Preserve, Protect, and Defend: A Practical Guide to the Care of Collections is an essential text for museum professionals, volunteers and consultants across a wide range of responsibilities: curators, registrars, collections managers, archivists, museum administrators, museum educators, conservators, art historians, operations staff, designers, engineers, architects, building contractors, suppliers, security specialists, and pest control experts.The topics are wide ranging: conservation assessments; practical advice for examining collections and buildings to uncover collection safety issues; routine collection safety practices; preparing for the unexpected, including wind and water penetration, fire and smoke, and infestations; and controlling the museum environment including temperature and relative humidity, light and lighting, and air quality.The book also offers an inside look into the world of museums and the people who work in them. Written in the accessible—and sometimes irreverent—style that the author is famous for, this book is a must-have for everyone who cares for collections and the buildings that house them—museums of all sizes, archives, libraries, and private collections.

Amazon Customers' Reviews

“Barbara’s book is a very straightforward approach to preservation, protection and defense of collections. This is a great book for museum collection managers to share with their staff and volunteers who come in contact with museum artifacts. The content will give them a better understanding of the risks and needs that effect their collections.”

“This book is a great resource. It is the first collections care book I’ve seen that deals so extensively with the surrounding environment, which is extremely important for staff, exhibition designers, and museum administration. I’m recommending that the library of the art institute where I teach purchase the book and I will also recommend readings from it to my students.”

“As a professor and director of a university historic preservation program, I found this book to be an important contribution to the field. It is very well written and I now have added it to my course syllabus as a recommended reading. Well done! This book is destined to be a classic! ”