General collections demography model with multiple risks

TL;DR

This paper introduces an Agent-Based Model combining damage functions and probabilistic degradation to simulate the lifespan and condition decay of collections under multiple risks.

Contribution

It presents a novel hybrid ABM approach integrating continuous and probabilistic degradation for collections demography modeling.

Findings

Model simulates collection condition decay over time.

Combines damage functions with Monte Carlo sampling.

Provides a framework for studying collection lifetimes.

Abstract

This note presents an Agent-Based Model (ABM) with Monte Carlo sampling, designed to simulate the behaviour of a population of objects over time. The model incorporates damage functions with the risk parameters of the ABC framework to simulate adverse events. As a result, it combines continuous and probabilistic degradation. This hybrid approach allows us to study the emergent behavior of the system and explore the range of possible lifetimes of a collection. The main outcome of the model is the decay in condition of a collection as a consequence of all the combined degradation processes. The model is based on six hypotheses that are described for further testing. This paper presents a first attempt at an universal implementation of Collections Demography principles, with the hope that it will generate discussion and the identification of research gaps.