I'm facing exactly this situation in the coming year. We are building a
new facility for the Archaeology department which will include
state-of-the-technology storage facilities.

    Our present storage is both in-house and off-site. The off-site storage
contains bulk collections that are not individually cataloged and are not
stored in accession or even box number order. The in-house storage is
primarily individually accessioned objects and delicate organic materials
that are organized and stored in catalog number order.

    My plan is to map the existing storage so that each box or individually
cataloged object has a location designation, for example: Row 1, Column 1,
Shelf 1, Box 1; Row 1, Column 1, Drawer 1, Catalog Number. I can then
organize this database of locations by accession number and catalog number.

    I will then map out the new storage facilities, which will consist of
compact storage with shelves and drawers, in a similar matter. Then, by
accession number, I'll assign each box or object in the old storage areas a
new location in the new storage areas.

    When it comes time to move, each object, box or catalog item, will have
an assigned place in the new storage facility. It will be a relatively
simple matter for the moving group to take Object X from one place and put
it in its assigned storage place.

    Michael A. Lewis
    Curator of Archaeology
    Maxwell Museum of Anthropology

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