Museums, Off-Site Archival Library, Art Collection
Designing High-Bay Facilities for Off-Site Art Storage
Consolidating, preserving, and accessing collections.
High-bay facilities aren’t only for storing books, journals, and other printed materials. As libraries and museums change to create new public spaces, off-site facilities also provide secure storage for art collections. Storing artwork in an off-site facility frees up space in on-campus libraries and museums while still providing full access to collections.
Here’s how two universities have recently consolidated artwork in off-site facilities to free up space on campus and provide the best conditions for collections storage.
Off-site Storage for Campus Art Galleries
When the University of Calgary expanded the off-campus High-Density Library, the planning team worked with Spacesaver to design a separate space within the facility for storing the university’s extensive art collection. Art racks, shelving, and museum-quality trays keep artwork organized, protected, and accessible. Now curators from the university’s art galleries can easily visit the collections storage area to view and select works for display on campus. Curators can easily view and select items for display on campus.
Nested Lateral Art Racks for Hanging Art
High-Bay Shelving with Rods for Framed Art Storage
Museum-Quality Drawers & Trays
Steel Archival Shelving for Boxes & Bins
Off-Site Film Storage
Why Off-Site Storage?
Why Off-Site Storage?
Texas State University – San Marcos
Off-site Collection Preservation
The off-site collections preservation facility houses different kinds of materials, from printed materials to archival boxes to framed artwork. The facility was designed to maintain three separate preservation environments according to the preservation needs of the collection and the comfort of staff and visiting researchers. Off-site storage frees up space on campus.
Compact Art Racks for Hanging Art
High-Density Mobile Shelving Eliminating Wasted Aisle Space
Framed Art High-Bay Shelving with Rods
Room to Grow
These purpose-designed buildings not only provide an exceptional preservation environment for works of art. They also use space efficiently to provide room to grow in the future. Carefully assess collections and estimate the volume of future acquisitions to ensure the facility will have plenty of space to accommodate growing collections.
Although high-bay facilities are expensive to build and operate, partnerships can help distribute the expense: two campuses can share a facility, for example, or a local museum can rent space from a library’s off-site facility.
“Our university records and archives collection is growing exponentially, which is why we’ve moved to mobile shelving to increase our storage capacity.”
- Claudette Cloutier, the University of Calgary’s Associate University Librarian for Research and Learning Services
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