What conditions are expected?
An Environmental Profile records the conditions your organisation has chosen for a collection, room, case or other context.
About Environmental Profiles →Planned monitoring
Turn monitoring into a clear, repeatable routine.
A Monitoring Plan brings together what needs checking, where it applies, how often it should happen and who is responsible, then keeps the resulting evidence close to the environmental record.
MONITORINGMonitoring PlansOngoing routines, responsibilities and review dates in one place.
Keep the jobs clear
Profiles describe the conditions. Plans describe the routine.
These parts of LÆFAN work together, but each has a different job. Keeping them separate makes the environmental record much easier to understand later.
How will those conditions be checked?
A Monitoring Plan records the routine: what is measured, how it is checked, how often, who is responsible and what evidence should be kept.
Is there a temporary context?
A Campaign gives a defined period of context for a loan, exhibition or investigation without replacing the normal monitoring underneath it.
Explore Campaigns →One source of expectationsMonitoring Plans do not need a second copy of environmental limits. The linked Environmental Profile remains the place where expected conditions are recorded.
A plan in action
From intention to evidence, without losing the reason for the monitoring.
Follow a typical routine for a gallery. The detail can change by collection and setting, but the structure stays understandable.
01 · PURPOSE & PLACE
Start with why the monitoring exists.
A plan should make sense to someone who was not there when it was created. Give the routine a clear purpose and attach it to the gallery, store, display case or monitoring point it belongs to.
- Example
- Roman Gallery weekly environmental review
- Place
- Main Site · First Floor · Roman Gallery
- Useful later
- Understand why each reading, check and note belongs together
One routine, different kinds of evidence
Continuous monitoring and human checks can work together.
A useful plan does not ask staff to manually inspect every incoming reading. Continuous sources can provide the environmental history, while planned checks give people a clear moment to review conditions, add observations and record anything that needs follow-up.
Let the data flow.
- Temperature and relative humidity sensors
- Light or other connected measurements where used
- Sensor flow and data continuity visible separately
- Environmental excursions interpreted against the Profile
Give staff a useful routine.
- Review recent conditions and excursions
- Record a Spot Record when a manual reading is useful
- Add an observation or inspection note
- Record who completed the check and when
ROMAN GALLERYWeekly environmental check
Due Monday✓Continuous data availableTemperature and RH history is present for the review period.
2Review recent excursionsSee whether anything needs a note, inspection or follow-up.
3Record any manual readingAdd a Spot Record if a handheld check is part of the routine.
4Add observationsKeep useful context with the monitoring history.
5Complete the checkRetain who carried it out and when.
Useful work, not paperwork
A plan should help the next check happen.
The practical value is not simply having a plan stored in the system. It is giving staff a clear routine and leaving behind evidence that the agreed monitoring was actually carried out.
That also makes missed or late checks visible instead of quietly disappearing when the next date arrives.
Read the monitoring & evidence guidance →Review the plan itself
Monitoring arrangements change too.
Collections move, exhibitions change, sensors are replaced and responsibilities shift. A review date gives the team a regular prompt to confirm that the plan still reflects what is actually happening.
01PurposeIs the reason for monitoring still current?
02PlaceIs the collection or space still being used in the same way?
03ProfileIs the linked Environmental Profile still the right context?
04MethodsAre the monitoring sources and manual checks still appropriate?
05ResponsibilityDoes the right person or team still own the routine?
06Next reviewRecord the review and set the next date.
What becomes evidence
Keep the routine connected to the environmental story.
Monitoring Plans are most useful when the work they generate remains connected to the readings and context around it.
Completed and missed checks
Show whether the agreed routine happened and who completed it.
Manual readings & observations
Add a one-off measurement or observation without replacing continuous data.
Explore Spot Records →Changes that needed review
Keep relevant environmental excursions visible during the monitoring routine.
Alerts & response →Changes to the plan itself
Keep a record of when the plan was reviewed and why it changed.
Bring the conditions and the monitoring activity together later.
The result is a clearer evidence trail: what was expected, how it was monitored, whether the checks happened, what changed and what was recorded afterwards.
Explore Reports & Evidence →