Understand Levels

Setting appropriate levels for your collection is fundamental to improving your collection environment over time. How do they work?

• Why are levels important?
• What kind of levels can you set?
• What kind of questions can you answer with levels?
• What do levels look like in Analytics?
• Are levels the same as event parameters?
• What do levels apply to?
• Where can you manage your levels?
• How many levels can you create?

Why are levels important?

From a preservation standpoint, it’s good practice to ensure that your spaces stay within certain parameters (not too humid, not too dry, not too many fluctuations). These factors depend on what collection materials you are trying to preserve, where you are in the world, and what your building is capable of doing.

Even in cases where you are not capable of controlling these spaces, it is valuable to know how often they remain in the parameters you would consider "ideal" given your reality. Real metrics about how your spaces behave can help you argue for capital improvements.

What kind of levels can you set?

Here are some examples of why you may want different levels for different spaces:

• Some spaces have more sensitive collections than others.
• Some spaces are safe for "sustainable environmental control" with more flexible parameters.
• Some spaces need stricter parameters with loan requirements.
• Spaces with environmental control can be expected to behave differently from spaces without it.
• Spaces can be different in the summer versus winter months. Levels may need to change accordingly based on the space's behavior.

What kind of questions can you answer with levels?

• How often is a space within its required parameters?
• What does a space look like during different times of the year?
• Is a space acceptable for collections storage or display?

What do levels look like in Analytics?

Levels will look like a shaded horizontal band on your individual sensor graphs in Analytics. The metrics you see called % in range will tell you how often your readings are within the shaded horizontal bands equivalent to your levels for a particular sensor or space.

Keeping track of this metric over time can help show the need for infrastructure improvements in the space.

Are levels the same as event parameters?

No. The purpose of levels is to create the horizontal bands in your Analytics graphs so you can see how often your environment is within your desired goals or expectations. Levels are setting ideals or expectations for a space. If your spaces regularly do not conform to your set levels, you should ask a few questions.

• Are the levels unrealistic? Should they be re-evaluated?
• Is this information being used to support requests for improvements?
• Is it safe to keep collections in this space?

Events should be set up with notifications in mind. Events should be considered as occurrences that are out of the ordinary because they will trigger real-time alerts that go to your email or your phone depending on your personal settings. You do not want to get constant real-time notifications about conditions that will not lead you to immediate action. Too many notifications about non-emergency events will lead to alert fatigue and a habit of ignoring all alerts, which can lead to a real disaster going unchecked.

What do levels apply to?

Levels apply to Spaces. This is why it is important that you Understand Hierarchies and have set up your Hierarchies correctly. When you run Reports, metrics will also be summarized by Space.

Levels will only apply to individual sensors if you happen to have only one sensor in a Space. Otherwise, the same Level settings will be applied to all the sensors within a Space.

Where can you manage your levels?

See the article on how to Create a Level Profile for details.

How many levels can you create?

There is no limit on how many levels you can set for your spaces in Conserv Cloud.