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Greetings all, I'm relatively new to my position as a Collections Manager/Registrar. I have questions about section 3.15 in the Environment portion of the AAM General Facilities Report. It reads:

3.15 What is the maximum usual variation percentage within a 24-hour period (taking into account climate changes and local conditions) in:

How do museums interpret "the maximum usual variation percentage within a 24-hour period"?

How are museums calculating this data?   

Are you calculating the numbers manually, or does your data logger software calculate these numbers for you? If you calculate them manually, what math equations are you using?

I don't understand exactly what this question is asking and how to calculate the numbers. A Google search for "the maximum usual variation percentage" retrieves results related to this question of the AAM General Facilities Report but doesn't return results for general math tutorials or information about how to calculate this. I've found information about "maximum (and minimum) usual values" and "variance percentages," which appear to be two different concepts. 

Unfortunately, statistics is not my strength. I would greatly appreciate any clarification, guidance, or help people may have to offer.

Thank you!

Sarah Sherman Clark

Heritage Museums & Gardens

Sandwich, MA

Greetings all, I'm relatively new to my position as a Collections Manager/Registrar. I have questions about section 3.15 in the Environment portion of the AAM General Facilities Report. It reads:

3.15 What is the maximum usual variation percentage within a 24-hour period (taking into account climate changes and local conditions) in:

How do museums interpret "the maximum usual variation percentage within a 24-hour period"?

How are museums calculating this data?   

Are you calculating the numbers manually, or does your data logger software calculate these numbers for you? If you calculate them manually, what math equations are you using?

I don't understand exactly what this question is asking and how to calculate the numbers. A Google search for "the maximum usual variation percentage" retrieves results related to this question of the AAM General Facilities Report but doesn't return results for general math tutorials or information about how to calculate this. I've found information about "maximum (and minimum) usual values" and "variance percentages," which appear to be two different concepts. 

Unfortunately, statistics is not my strength. I would greatly appreciate any clarification, guidance, or help people may have to offer.

Thank you!

Sarah Sherman Clark

Heritage Museums & Gardens

Sandwich, MA

Hi Sarah,

I interpreted "the maximum usual variation percentage within a 24-hour period" as "the greatest fluctuation in temperature or RH that occurs within a typical day."  Storage/exhibition environments vary seasonally, so you will have to determine the biggest fluctuation in temp and RH for spring/summer and fall/winter for your report.

I equated "maximum usual variation" with standard deviation ("SD"). We use HOBO dataloggers, so the software calculates the SD for us (see image below). A low SD means the data samples your loggers are measuring are staying within a close range - this means your environment is pretty stable. A high SD means the data samples are spread out over a wide range, thus indicating that your storage environment fluctuates often. You can also auto-calculate SD for a specific time period with Conserv. I haven't used eClimateNotebook, but I'm sure there is a way to calculate SD with that program as well. 

Greetings all, I'm relatively new to my position as a Collections Manager/Registrar. I have questions about section 3.15 in the Environment portion of the AAM General Facilities Report. It reads:

3.15 What is the maximum usual variation percentage within a 24-hour period (taking into account climate changes and local conditions) in:

How do museums interpret "the maximum usual variation percentage within a 24-hour period"?

How are museums calculating this data?   

Are you calculating the numbers manually, or does your data logger software calculate these numbers for you? If you calculate them manually, what math equations are you using?

I don't understand exactly what this question is asking and how to calculate the numbers. A Google search for "the maximum usual variation percentage" retrieves results related to this question of the AAM General Facilities Report but doesn't return results for general math tutorials or information about how to calculate this. I've found information about "maximum (and minimum) usual values" and "variance percentages," which appear to be two different concepts. 

Unfortunately, statistics is not my strength. I would greatly appreciate any clarification, guidance, or help people may have to offer.

Thank you!

Sarah Sherman Clark

Heritage Museums & Gardens

Sandwich, MA

Hi Linda and Rebekah,

Thanks for your replies! I really appreciate it. We use Hobo dataloggers.

Rebekah - your screenshot is helpful and looks very familiar to what I see in our Hobo software.

I have follow-up questions -

If you are equating "max usual variation" to SD I assume you convert the decimal numbers into a percentage for the Facilities Report? 0.175 becomes 17.5%

How often are your dataloggers capturing the data? Is there a best practice (ie. 5 minutes, 30 minutes, etc.)? Ours are set to capture data every 5 minutes. 

Thanks!

Sarah

Hi Sarah,

I interpreted "the maximum usual variation percentage within a 24-hour period" as "the greatest fluctuation in temperature or RH that occurs within a typical day."  Storage/exhibition environments vary seasonally, so you will have to determine the biggest fluctuation in temp and RH for spring/summer and fall/winter for your report.

I equated "maximum usual variation" with standard deviation ("SD"). We use HOBO dataloggers, so the software calculates the SD for us (see image below). A low SD means the data samples your loggers are measuring are staying within a close range - this means your environment is pretty stable. A high SD means the data samples are spread out over a wide range, thus indicating that your storage environment fluctuates often. You can also auto-calculate SD for a specific time period with Conserv. I haven't used eClimateNotebook, but I'm sure there is a way to calculate SD with that program as well. 

Greetings all, I'm relatively new to my position as a Collections Manager/Registrar. I have questions about section 3.15 in the Environment portion of the AAM General Facilities Report. It reads:

3.15 What is the maximum usual variation percentage within a 24-hour period (taking into account climate changes and local conditions) in:

How do museums interpret "the maximum usual variation percentage within a 24-hour period"?

How are museums calculating this data?   

Are you calculating the numbers manually, or does your data logger software calculate these numbers for you? If you calculate them manually, what math equations are you using?

I don't understand exactly what this question is asking and how to calculate the numbers. A Google search for "the maximum usual variation percentage" retrieves results related to this question of the AAM General Facilities Report but doesn't return results for general math tutorials or information about how to calculate this. I've found information about "maximum (and minimum) usual values" and "variance percentages," which appear to be two different concepts. 

Unfortunately, statistics is not my strength. I would greatly appreciate any clarification, guidance, or help people may have to offer.

Thank you!

Sarah Sherman Clark

Heritage Museums & Gardens

Sandwich, MA

Unfortunately, I don't think it's that easy. I left it written in SD form in our report (see image below), since the data provides the same information - just not in percent form. If I saw ".175" on an institution's report, I would know that the gallery/storage area is a safe space. If I saw an SD of "18.44" I would not choose to proceed with an object loan.

We have our dataloggers set to capture data every 15 minutes. I have not heard of a magic number for this, but I would say 5 minutes is too frequent unless the environment in the space is literally changing every 5 minutes. Others may have a different opinion.

Hi Linda and Rebekah,

Thanks for your replies! I really appreciate it. We use Hobo dataloggers.

Rebekah - your screenshot is helpful and looks very familiar to what I see in our Hobo software.

I have follow-up questions -

If you are equating "max usual variation" to SD I assume you convert the decimal numbers into a percentage for the Facilities Report? 0.175 becomes 17.5%

How often are your dataloggers capturing the data? Is there a best practice (ie. 5 minutes, 30 minutes, etc.)? Ours are set to capture data every 5 minutes. 

Thanks!

Sarah

Hi Sarah,

I interpreted "the maximum usual variation percentage within a 24-hour period" as "the greatest fluctuation in temperature or RH that occurs within a typical day."  Storage/exhibition environments vary seasonally, so you will have to determine the biggest fluctuation in temp and RH for spring/summer and fall/winter for your report.

I equated "maximum usual variation" with standard deviation ("SD"). We use HOBO dataloggers, so the software calculates the SD for us (see image below). A low SD means the data samples your loggers are measuring are staying within a close range - this means your environment is pretty stable. A high SD means the data samples are spread out over a wide range, thus indicating that your storage environment fluctuates often. You can also auto-calculate SD for a specific time period with Conserv. I haven't used eClimateNotebook, but I'm sure there is a way to calculate SD with that program as well. 

Greetings all, I'm relatively new to my position as a Collections Manager/Registrar. I have questions about section 3.15 in the Environment portion of the AAM General Facilities Report. It reads:

3.15 What is the maximum usual variation percentage within a 24-hour period (taking into account climate changes and local conditions) in:

How do museums interpret "the maximum usual variation percentage within a 24-hour period"?

How are museums calculating this data?   

Are you calculating the numbers manually, or does your data logger software calculate these numbers for you? If you calculate them manually, what math equations are you using?

I don't understand exactly what this question is asking and how to calculate the numbers. A Google search for "the maximum usual variation percentage" retrieves results related to this question of the AAM General Facilities Report but doesn't return results for general math tutorials or information about how to calculate this. I've found information about "maximum (and minimum) usual values" and "variance percentages," which appear to be two different concepts. 

Unfortunately, statistics is not my strength. I would greatly appreciate any clarification, guidance, or help people may have to offer.

Thank you!

Sarah Sherman Clark

Heritage Museums & Gardens

Sandwich, MA

Hi all,

I was glad to find this discussion, as I'm currently filling out the GFR and am stumped by this question. Like Sarah, I can't find any general instructions or guidance for calculating these percentages. I'm also not sure how you would define the maximum usual - like, that's not the typical variation, but it's also not the maximum... maybe I'm overthinking it, but I'm just stuck.

We also use Hobo dataloggers and I can get the standard deviation from them - however, that number is for the data as a whole, not divided by days/24-hour-periods, so I don't feel like that's an accurate answer.

The last time I needed the GFR, we were lucky enough to know an accountant who was able to do the data analysis for us, but no such luck now! 

I'd love to know how others are answering this question and whether it seems to affect your ability to secure loans.

Thanks!

Corinne 

Unfortunately, I don't think it's that easy. I left it written in SD form in our report (see image below), since the data provides the same information - just not in percent form. If I saw ".175" on an institution's report, I would know that the gallery/storage area is a safe space. If I saw an SD of "18.44" I would not choose to proceed with an object loan.

We have our dataloggers set to capture data every 15 minutes. I have not heard of a magic number for this, but I would say 5 minutes is too frequent unless the environment in the space is literally changing every 5 minutes. Others may have a different opinion.

Hi Linda and Rebekah,

Thanks for your replies! I really appreciate it. We use Hobo dataloggers.

Rebekah - your screenshot is helpful and looks very familiar to what I see in our Hobo software.

I have follow-up questions -

If you are equating "max usual variation" to SD I assume you convert the decimal numbers into a percentage for the Facilities Report? 0.175 becomes 17.5%

How often are your dataloggers capturing the data? Is there a best practice (ie. 5 minutes, 30 minutes, etc.)? Ours are set to capture data every 5 minutes. 

Thanks!

Sarah

Hi Sarah,

I interpreted "the maximum usual variation percentage within a 24-hour period" as "the greatest fluctuation in temperature or RH that occurs within a typical day."  Storage/exhibition environments vary seasonally, so you will have to determine the biggest fluctuation in temp and RH for spring/summer and fall/winter for your report.

I equated "maximum usual variation" with standard deviation ("SD"). We use HOBO dataloggers, so the software calculates the SD for us (see image below). A low SD means the data samples your loggers are measuring are staying within a close range - this means your environment is pretty stable. A high SD means the data samples are spread out over a wide range, thus indicating that your storage environment fluctuates often. You can also auto-calculate SD for a specific time period with Conserv. I haven't used eClimateNotebook, but I'm sure there is a way to calculate SD with that program as well. 

Greetings all, I'm relatively new to my position as a Collections Manager/Registrar. I have questions about section 3.15 in the Environment portion of the AAM General Facilities Report. It reads:

3.15 What is the maximum usual variation percentage within a 24-hour period (taking into account climate changes and local conditions) in:

How do museums interpret "the maximum usual variation percentage within a 24-hour period"?

How are museums calculating this data?   

Are you calculating the numbers manually, or does your data logger software calculate these numbers for you? If you calculate them manually, what math equations are you using?

I don't understand exactly what this question is asking and how to calculate the numbers. A Google search for "the maximum usual variation percentage" retrieves results related to this question of the AAM General Facilities Report but doesn't return results for general math tutorials or information about how to calculate this. I've found information about "maximum (and minimum) usual values" and "variance percentages," which appear to be two different concepts. 

Unfortunately, statistics is not my strength. I would greatly appreciate any clarification, guidance, or help people may have to offer.

Thank you!

Sarah Sherman Clark

Heritage Museums & Gardens

Sandwich, MA