ZEMCH 2015 - International Conference Proceedings | Page 813

Table 1: Museum personnel and the associated departments interviewed Position Department / Firm Information (gathered through) Head of Conservation Team / Chief Conservator Architectural Heritage Department / Dubai Municipality Interview Maintenance Department Sharjah Museums’ Department Interview Head of Tour Guides Sharjah Museums’ Department Interview Tour Guides Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilization Email/Survey Security Guards Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilization Personal/Survey The table above (Table 1) shows the details of the personnel included from different museums with their departments, and how the information was obtained from each data source. During the interviews among the museum personnel in different museums, the maintenance departments have been added in the study due to the nature of their works and their relations with the historical items in terms of maintaining the environmental conditions of them. Conservation Department As mentioned earlier, the conservation department personnel are always exposed to relatively higher risks than other departments, as the nature of their work requires them to deal with the ancient items and to treat them continuously. With this study, it was aimed to evaluate the working conditions within Sharjah Museums’ departments and the AHD of Dubai Municipality. However, conducting interviews and obtaining feedback in Sharjah Museums were challenging and time consuming, and therefore the results of the interview with the head of conservation team in the AHD at Dubai Municipality have been presented in the study. In this department, 5 people are working in the same laboratories and their working hours are from 7:30am to 2:30pm. The conservators are exposed to the artifacts all day long except for the short breaks during their work. There is no time limit in dealing with artifacts; they are required to take breaks once they feel tired. The following sections are showing the conditions in the conservation department at Dubai Municipality. The Conservation Methods Adopted in the Department: In conservation, the origin of each item (organic or inorganic) plays important role on how the object will be treated. Even if the objects are categorized and having the same nature, treating each piece will be different from other due to its conditions. Based on the found objects at the archaeological sites, the materials used in each conservation project may vary. However, most of the items are inorganic materials and they are metal items. There are two different ways in conserving the historical items; (1) using chemicals or (2) mechanical tools. Nowadays mostly agreed that the conservators should be kept each historical piece at their original conditions with minimum changes without introducing a new chemical or a material substance to them. In Dubai Municipality, the conservators are usually treating the items mechanically and avoiding any chemical usage as much as possible. Different Stages of Object Conservation: As the conservator receives an object from archaeological sites, each item should be documented. Documentation should always be done in three stages: (1) before, (2) while, and (3) after conservation. After documentation, a conditional report should be prepared for each item; this includes the status of the received pieces and specifies their conditions, whether in good condition, bad, endangered or else. The report should also include photos from the objects, dimensions, description, and sketches to show the areas of concern. A post occupancy evaluation of the uae museum indoor environments 811