The Museum of London (MOL) brings the city’s history, from prehistoric times to the present, is brought to life at the Museum through interactive exhibits, and everyday items. Similarly, the history of London’s rivers is on show at the Museum of London Docklands, located at West India Quay.
Exhibits range from an original 18th-century debtors’ prison cell, a dark space where the walls bear original graffiti, to an indoor version of the Pleasure Gardens of Georgian London. At the Museum of London Docklands, life on the London docks is portrayed likewise.
The museums’ collections are housed both at the Museums and at the London Archaeological Archive and Research Centre (LAARC), part of the Museum’s Department of Archaeological Collections and Archive. Based in Hackney, the LAARC also holds the recorded information of the more than 7,500 archaeological sites excavated in Greater London over the past 100 years.
Safeguarding t
To help safeguard the exhibits, and collections and maintain the safety and security of the staff, visitors and premises, the Museum of London relies on physical security systems including an automated key control and asset management system from Morse Watchmans. At each of the three locations, the museum utilises the US manufacturer’s KeyWatcher Illuminated system to hold and track keys to offices, exhibit halls, display cases, special areas of the museum, collection storage areas and other work areas or rooms that have controlled access.
Ken Boutayre, Security Supervisor for the Museum of London, said: “Securing the access to our collections both on display and in storage is critical, and the Morse Watchmans key control system has been an invaluable tool to help us achieve that objective. Its automated tracking and key usage reporting capability have helped to upgrade our security operation and remove the ever-present concern of lost keys.”
The key control product allows authorised staff to access specific keys from the key cabinet while keeping the other keys locked in place. Each key is secured to a SmartKey locking mechanism with built-in memory chip; data from the chip is stored when a key is inserted into or removed from a key slot. To access a key, users enter their PIN code and if the criteria entered match the data stored in the system database, the key cabinet will unlock and the authorised key can be removed or returned to any open slot in the cabinet.
Network capable
User authorisation and programming of the system for all three locations is established by the security department and allows for a range of control. For instance, outside staff were needed to assist for a recent exhibit on Dickens; the security team was able to set temporary permission levels for selected guests to access keys for particular work and storage areas. Keys were only available for access during regular work hours and if the key was not returned as scheduled, an email alert was sent to security operations.
In place for about five years, the museum’s key control system is network facilitated to enable the security team to more easily program the KeyWatchers. With its on-screen history display, he can track who has accessed or returned keys and when. The automated record keeping can also help to reduce the number of man hours spent searching for keys or following up on incidents.
Mr Boutayre said: “The system’s effectiveness in managing the key control process has helped us to secure the three facilities. Every transaction is automatically recorded and there is simply no opportunity for logging errors. It saves valuable time in the event of an incident because we always know the whereabouts of every key or who has had it and when it was returned.”
Access
Mr Boutayre also mentions that the key control system enhances the access control system that regulates access of all authorised persons including staff, contractors, visitors and others into and throughout the museums. The transparency of the integration allows for the functioning of each of the processes while simultaneously and seamlessly merging the related functions. Using a common front-end database, the area of movement for staff with keys can be defined by the parameters within the building that are controlled by various limited-access doors. An example of this would be a user who has taken a key for a given area and then is denied egress from the area until the key is returned. The parameters can be applied to users, keys, groups of keys, time restraints, reservations and so on.
Optimising the key management within the museums pays rewards in terms of ROI (return on investment), according to Mr Boutayre. Museum collections, exhibits and work areas are secured and better protected. He also states that the overall reliability and durability of the systems have proven to have a cost-saving effect.
“The build quality of the key cabinets is very impressive and in the five years that the Museums have been fitted with the Morse systems, we have never had a hardware issue,” he said. “The cost effectiveness is really measured though in terms of key security and time saved. The system proves itself every day it is used.”
