It is all a matter of balance.  We have a lot of off site storage because
our "museums" are historic buildings or archaeological sites with no
storage space.  My feeling is that while on site storage may be ideal
from the curatorial point of view it is not always cost effective.
If you want your new museum in a city centre, in order to attract visitors,
then land values may be high.  In this case it may be more affordable to have
your storage on the outskirts of the city. With off-site storage the buildings
don't have to look as pretty (the visitors won't see them) which may save
some money.  If you go for off site storage, make sure there is office and
work space at the storage site, make sure that at least one member of staff
is based at the store (a technician or store keeper), make sure that curators
with collections in the store & conservators have regular visits to the store
as part of their forward job plans (e.g. the curator of art will visit the
store on the first monday of every month -- they may of course make other
unscheduled visits).  Try to avoid having your remote store more than an hours
journey from your museum.

Finally bear in mind that hardly any of the off site storage that we have
meets the above criteria! (but then we do have 6 off-site and 5 on-site stores
to cover over 130 sites).
--
Trevor Reynolds                    work tel: +44 181 348 1286
Registrar                          work fax: +44 171 973 3891
English Heritage
The Iveagh Bequest, Kenwood        home tel: +44 1908 321354
Hampstead Lane                     home email: [log in to unmask]
London NW3 7JR
UK