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Risk Management (Museums) is the identification, analysis, assessment, control, avoidance, minimization, or elimination of unacceptable risks. It is also a key component in preventative conservation.

Physical Force
Caused by earthquakes and other natural disasters, physical damage from staff, and repair work. Physical force can cause five types of damage, Impact is when something strikes an artifact which may result in compression, punctures, dents, tears, cracks, chips, scratches, and abrasion; an example of this is dropping. Shock is the result of a large impact. Shock is a big cause of damage during shipment of objects. Vibration is the oscillating motion of an object relative to a fixed point of reference. Pressure is force applied on an object. Abrasion occurs whenever there is movement between two objects in contact.

Fire
Caused by flames, smoke and soot from either accidental fires or arson. Some items will be heavily damaged by the fire — exhibiting ashing, charring, melting, or other distortion from the heat. Much of this material is likely not salvageable. The remainder may be lightly scorched, covered in soot, and have a strong odor of the fire.

Water
Caused by floods, leaky plumbing and roofs, and spills. As a result of the water coming in contact with objects mold can appear and attack and cause more damage. Further physical damage can occur due to drying out too quickly or too slowly, which can cause tearing, distortion, splitting, cracking, etc. Surfaces or objects sticking to each other; absorbent materials (such as paper, textiles, leather) hardening due to soaking and subsequent drying; accretions on surfaces from contaminants in water; dissolution of pigments, dyes, water-soluble adhesives, etc.; loss of information;loss of fragments from paper, paintings, ceramics, etc.; and loss of objects can all happen when water is exposed to a collection.

Criminal
Robbery, isolated or internal theft and vandalism. Can cause the loss or marring of an object. The damage done may or may not be able to be repaired.

Pests
Caused by mold, rodents and insects. Can be a health and safety issue for people, but can also weaken the structural integrity of the object.

Contaminants
Caused by dust and off gassing. Dust is one of the major pollutants and is hydroscopic which means it attracts water to the surface of the object and can become in grained into the surface. Dust can causes corrosion on metals by attracting water to the surface. Other pollutants include sulfur dioxide (mainly from fuel in cars), ozone and volatile organic compounds. These can all cause tarnishing on metals, degradation of textile fabrics and causes paper to go brittle.

Light and UV Radiation
Light causes permanent photochemical changes, loss of strength in the material structure will cause them to be brittle and possibly difficult to handle.The main cause of damage from light is from UV radiation. Light also causes dyes to fade.

Incorrect Temperature and Relative Humidity
Temperature and relative humidity are linked - generally as the temperature goes up the relative humidity comes down Incorrect RH can cause shrinking and cracking/swelling which means adhesives fail, textile fibers loose their flexibility and break, and wooden item especially can be permanently damaged. Fluctuating RH can cause the most damage as it causes object to swell and shrink over a short time frame.

Custodial Neglect
Caused by misplacing, sample mixing, and loss of vital data. "One type of custodial neglect occurs when active care is not taken to preserve the collection or when information and practices on collections care are not current. The second type of custodial neglect is the disassociation of collection objects and their records. Ensuring that collections records are properly kept and maintained is of the highest priority."

Purpose of Risk Management
The purpose of Risk Management is to answer the following questions and put in place strategies to prevent, minimize and assess the damage caused by the risks.

What percentage of the collection is at risk?

What would be the loss in value if a risk were to happen?

What is the probability of the risk happening?

What would be the extent of the damage if the risk were to happen?

Strategies
To diminish the extent of damage that the above risks can cause, these strategies should be used in conjunction with each other and not by themselves.

1. Avoid the Risk 2. Block the risk 3. Detect and monitor the risk 4. Respond to mitigate the risk 5. Recover from the damage the risk caused and treat the collection.

Insurance
"Insurance should be integrated into the risk management program. Its purpose is to offer financial protection by insulating the museum from catastrophic monetary loss." To find the right insurance policy for your museum, calculate the value of your collection including the loans and which risks are more likely to affect your region. Once you have your information ready, contact an insurance company who has agents that are experienced in dealing with insurance for museums. This will benefit your museum by having a policy that fits your own museum's needs.