Off-site Storage Facility Research Articles

The Re-housing and Return of the Louisiana State Museum's Collections

A team led by conservators from Williamstown Art Conservation Center prepared and moved collections from the Louisiana State Museum that had previously been evacuated to an off-site storage facility following Hurricane Katrina. From December 2007 through June 2008, team members documented, assessed, stabilized, and packed a wide variety of collections objects. These included musical instruments, records, archives from the Louisiana History Center, decorative arts, and science and technology artifacts. Housings that served for both transport and storage were made to reduce handling where possible. Modular systems including rolling carts and trays sized to be compatible with the storage shelving were implemented for efficiency. Cost-effective commercially available materials made of archivally sound materials were used where appropriate. Over 200,000 objects in all were moved into the improved storage areas.

Preservation Needs of Children's Literature in Academic Libraries

A preservation needs survey of children's literature collections at the University of Colorado at Boulder Libraries is analyzed. The genre, the subject of a growing body of scholarship, has enduring value and is collected in universities to support programs in literature, education, art, cultural history, and more. Even well known children's literature titles prior to the twentieth century are now scarce; preservation of modern titles is not an unreasonable precaution. In this survey, older titles housed in special collections had many problems as a result of their provenance. Too brittle to be rebound and too rare to be replaced, yet too expensive to conserve, these volumes were boxed and placed in the palliative environment of an off-site storage facility. Cataloged online for the first time in preparation for their transfer, they are being used more heavily; their condition is monitored each time they are recalled. Out of copyright and usually short texts, the brittle titles are good candidates for in-house digitization. The survey found that the new titles in circulation cannot be subjected to simple re-binding. Processed and handled with consideration for their structure, the modern children's titles in the academic library setting will survive so long that replacements, when they are eventually needed, are not likely to be available.

Challenges of Off-Site Library Storage Facilities

SUMMARY This session presented several case studies of libraries facing challenges following a decision to move materials to an off-site storage facility. The presenters described the entire process of moving materials to an off-site location: from planning and selecting materials to organizing the collection off-site, with an emphasis on the unique problems created by serials. All three presenters shared strategies and decision-making methods with the audience.

“The Long and the Short” of Copying Panorama Negatives at Library and Archives Canada

The vast photograph holdings of the Library and Archives Canada include a large and significant collection of cellulose nitrate still photographic negatives. From the fine portraiture of Yousuf Karsh to the Merrilees collection documenting all aspects of early transportation in Canada to historical National Defense, WWI & WWII material, this is a collection in demand. Within the collection there are between four and five thousand nitrate panorama negatives in a variety of sizes and all tightly rolled. Many are in original metal tube containers, many are without primary housing, and most are inaccessible to even archivists to provide proper identification and develop finding aids.Apropos to this collection in it's current state, Library and Archives Canada's mandate to preserve the documentary heritage of Canada, to be a source of enduring knowledge accessible to all, and to serve as the continuing memory of the government of Canada and its institutions, is severely impeded.The purpose of this paper will be to identify options for making this collection of rolled panoramas accessible to clients, while preserving the original. Digital copying is deemed the preferred method of delivery of these images to clients for many reasons, however, problems arise when attempting to scan them due to their current physical state. This paper will include a discussion of research into different scanning technologies and software, and highlight conservation concerns such as handling, and light and heat exposure during the copying process. What other institutions have done previously and how they are currently approaching the copying of panorama negatives will also be addressed.All of the cellulose nitrate film collections at the LAC are housed in an offsite storage facility with some environmental controls. However, this facility is considered substandard and therefore a new state of the art facility is in the planning stages and includes cold/sub zero storage. Finding a methodology for scanning of the panoramas is becoming a more pressing issue, as copying prior to being placed in cold storage, for a least high demand items, is desirable.

Going Off-Site: Implementing a Plan for a Library Storage Facility

ABSTRACTIn response to the worsening problem of overcrowding of books and bound periodicals in the Carnegie Mellon University Libraries, a task force of library personnel undertook the planning and implementation of an off-site storage facility. The nine members of the group representing library administration, access services, acquisitions, cataloging, library information technology, and reference worked together and in subgroups to plan for the move. This article discusses the staffing and work space requirements, the selection criteria for materials, the process for pulling materials from the stacks, the shelving scheme for the facility, the workflow for barcoding items and editing records in the library management system and for relabeling volumes, and the retrieval of items from the facility.

The Penn State Annex

The Penn State Annex has played a vital role in the growth and development of library collections and programs. This article reflects on a number of initiatives in which the off-site storage facility has played a part, including shrink wrapping current journal issues, space management during phased construction, a facilities crisis, and a barcoding project that uses wireless technology. Changes in staffing requirements in anticipation of a new high-density facility are discussed.

Maintaining quality document delivery service with off-site storage facilities

Maintaining quality document delivery service with off-site storage facilities

Collection management in Oxford art libraries – high rise or deep six?

The Oxford University Library Services, with its millions of volumes and extensive electronic resources covering all subject areas, is going through a lengthy process of consolidation and rationalisation at every level. Increasing pressures on space and budgets have forced the issue. Art history is a small component. However libraries and collections covering the visual arts have been at the forefront of this process by virtue of the establishment of the new Sackler Library. The system continues to evolve on all fronts, including collection development, integration of existing libraries into fewer sites, new offsite storage facilities and increasing reliance on electronic resources.

INTO THE NEW MILLENNIUM: CONSERVATION INPUT FOR FOUR TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY ARTS BUILDINGS

The Conservation Department of the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, contributed to four new building projects: an offsite long-term storage facility with temporary conservation facilities; a temporary display for approximately three years in a newly renovated nineteenth-century building; a new building with 21 galleries devoted exclusively to Australian art; and the complete renovation of a 1967 building to turn it into a 30-gallery building dedicated to international art. Preventive conservation principles were applied to all four buildings and the author presents a synopsis of his experience of these projects.

High-Density Off-Site Storage: Document Delivery and Academic Library Research Collections

ABSTRACT This article describes a high-density off-site book storage facility operated by a consortium of the University of Colorado and the University of Denver. Opened in 2001, it has capacity to house nearly 1.5 million items in only 9,500 square feet by shelving books by size on thirty-foot tall shelving. Materials are retrieved upon patrons' electronic request and delivered to the library daily. By removing seldom-used material to off-site storage, valuable library space is made available for patron-service activities. As millions of volumes are moved off-site in favor of on-demand delivery, the nature of the research library will change. This article describes the high-density off-site storage facility at the University of Colorado, the reason for its existence, the retrieval and delivery system. This paper also explores some implications of high-density off-site storage for library materials.

High-Density Remote Storage

This article describes a high-density off-site book storage facility operated by the Ohio State University Libraries. Opened in 1995, it has the capacity to house nearly 1.5 million items in only 9,000 square feet by shelving books by size on 30-foot tall shelving. A sophisticated climate control system extends the life of stored materials up to 12 times. Materials are retrieved upon request of patrons and delivered to the Main Library three times daily.

Backup and recovery in accounting information systems

This paper examines the necessity of backup and recovery techniques in accounting information systems. The first point is that both large and small-scale systems need to implement these techniques to some degree. The different types of failures are software, hardware, and environmental. Ancestral files can be used for backup and recovery. Offsite storage facilities are necessary. There are various ways of carrying out database recovery, which must include security controls.