Core Library Storage Interest Group

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  • 1.  October monthly Library storage discussion topic

    Posted Oct 23, 2023 10:04 AM

    All,

     

    Thanks for all of you who shared possible future discussion topics. Amy and I have started a list from your recent suggestions and will try to send one out once a month. And, of course, you are always free to send your own question to the list at any time.  

     

    Jill Friedmann from Northern Arizona University asks:

     

    "What about a topic on shared storage for campus collections? Is this a thing? How do universities/libraries deal with climate/access issues if anthropology collections are stored with archival and circulating book collections?".

     

    I can answer for the Library of Congress. We have two storage facilities that are intended mainly of paper based and photographic materials. We have very few objects (90 globes and a very small amount of art)  We maintain the typical 50F/30% RH that are used by most Harvard style high density facilities.  I have not worked in a museum setting so am not familiar with any different temperature and RH settings that they made use for objects such as anthropology collections.

     

    I am looking forward to hearing back from any Libraries on this list serv that house both paper and objects in their facilities.

     

    Jill,  have you reached out to the museum community with this question at all?

    Thanks,

     

    Cathy



  • 2.  RE: October monthly Library storage discussion topic

    Posted Nov 15, 2023 01:19 PM

    It's November and I'm finally getting around to chiming in on this topic. 

    Our facility has climate controls, but due to the nature of the building we cannot maintain anything close to what the standard is (ie Harvard's 50F/30% RH).  That being said, we do store any and all objects -- realia, microform, books, paper, art, a/v, etc. 

    Katia (Penn)



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    Katia Strieck
    Director, Library Research Annex
    University of Pennsylvania Libraries
    267-275-5059
    kstrieck@upenn.edu
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  • 3.  RE: October monthly Library storage discussion topic

    Posted Nov 20, 2023 11:50 AM

    I'll also chime in late: the Libraries Annex (offsite Harvard-style storage) has two areas: paper-based storage at 65 F/ 50 % RH and cool storage for media at 50 F/25 % RH. We have a small quantity of hanging storage, but any non-media or -paper materials are few and far between in our collections. 
    Our campus natural history museums have less-than desirable climate control in their storage areas, to my knowledge, but I don't know any of the specifics.



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    Margaret Halterman-Dess
    Library Annex Coordinator
    University of Iowa Libraries
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