Indoor climate characterisation of the quarantine room of NTNU university library

Archives, museums, and libraries can havequarantine rooms as storage areas in which incomingcollections are temporarily housed. The purpose ofthe quarantine period is to control the object’ state incase of appearance of signs suggesting ongoingchemical and biological alteration, before beingplaced in conservation or exhibition spaces.Inappropriate thermo-hygrometric conditions ofsuch spaces could negatively affect the chemo-physical properties of organic materials commonlystored in archives, leading to possibly irreversiblechanges. This contribution deals with thecharacterisation of microclimate inside a quarantineroom, located in Dora I (Trondheim, Norway) over amulti-year period to highlight conditions that mayhave led to a rise in insects’ presence within the samearea. The outcomes of an entomological andmicroclimate analysis within the room show that nosignificant variations were experienced in the indoorhygrothermal behaviour over the years, and the peakof insects catches happened in July and August 2022.Preventive measures are finally formulated to help indetecting the potentially infested objects andminimizing the possibility of biological proliferationon artifacts.