I would personally recommend shallower shelves, with the individual
objects grouped in trays (with sides slightly lower than the height of
the drawer) without the boxes so that everything is one layer and visible
but still able to be moved in groups to be studied or otherwise accessed.
This reduces unnecessary movement that is caused when you have things
stacked in boxes and increases visibility which is very important since
you will see any potential problems/damage/mold/etc much sooner.
If the trays are measured to fit the slide out drawers, the space use can
be very efficient and is much much easier for people who are managing the
collection. It can be done in a more budget friendly way with trays made
from cardboard instead of bought pre-made. You can make a template with
some calculations and make them very quickly (or put interns or
volunteers to work on them).
Elizabeth Walton
At 06:29 PM 5/11/2009, you wrote:
Dear Museum-Lers –
I am once again appealing to you with a question about
laboratory/curation equipment – many belated thanks to those of you who
responded to my last query about fume hoods.
This time around, I’m curious to hear from anyone who has worked with
compact storage (high density mobile storage) for large archaeology
collections. We are committed to this type of storage system, and I’ve
been asked by the architects to figure out what kind of options we’d like
for shelving configuration. Right now I’m split as to which option will
be best: open shelving + file-sized archival boxes packed with artifacts
(typical of many working archaeology labs and companies), versus units
with pull out drawers where artifacts would be housed in bags but not
large boxes. There are positives and negatives to both, and ultimately
cost may determine what we choose. Either way, we’ll also have some
shelving space set aside for oversize items and some allotted for records
storage. I’m curious to hear from anyone who has experience with this
type of storage system used for sizeable archaeology collections. What
was your configuration like? Were there specific things you loved? Things
you wish you’d done differently?
Thanks in advance your advice –
aloha
~Liz
Presidio Archaeology Lab
www.presidio.gov/history/archaeology
(415) 561-ARCH
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