[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: Building design and planning - advice needed



The ceilings in my office, which is open visually to part of our reading
room, are about 15 feet high, and there are bookshelves on the
walls reaching right up to the ceiling. Until last year, the upper half of
the shelves were empty since the space was built in the early 80s: you
couldn't shelve books or archival boxes way up there.

I've since filled them up with a collection of athletics trophies and
nineteenth-century footballs that were previously boxed away. That way the
space is used as a form of storage and it's also a visually interesting
ornament to the reading room, and for our readers who happen to look up.

You could consider the space as being good for "non-standard sized items,"
of which we all seem to have some....


Jeffrey Makala
Processing Archivist/Reference Librarian
Special Collections & Archives
Olin Library, Wesleyan University                       860.685.3863
252 Church St.                                          860.685.2661 fax
Middletown CT 06459                                     jmakala@wesleyan.edu

On Thu, 27 Apr 2000, Thomas Berry wrote:

> To those who have dealt with building committees and other aspects of
> planning a new archival building:
>
> I've run into a couple of problems concerning design snd furnishing of a new
> building for our collections, and need your advice on the matter.
>
> 1. What kind of sealant is recommended for a plain concrete floor?
>
> 2. One committee member is quite eager to see us install shelving above the
> file cabinets that will be used to store a good portion of our collections.
> He wants to mount it to the walls or hang it from the cieling, and he wants
> to do this in order to not waste the space above the cabinets. The room will
> have a nine or ten foot cieling, which means that only one shelf could
> realistically be installed. I've tried without success to dissuade him,
> telling him it will be more trouble than it's worth (cost, weight of boxes,
> problems of removal and reshelving, etc.). I know I can get somewhere with
> him, as I was able to talk him out of the painted wooden cabinets he
> originally had in mind, but this one has me stumped. Has anhyone else out
> there encountered this kind of thinking, and if so, what happened? Was the
> shelving installed? If so, how is it working? If not, why? (I do understand
> that file cabinets are not the best way to file records in the first place,
> but I've been unable to break through a solid wall of "We've always done it
> this way, so we always will" thrown up by everyone on the committee.)
>
> Many thanks for all advice and suggestions.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Thomas Berry, Archivist
> Historical Construction Equipment Association
> 16623 Liberty Hi Road
> Bowling Green, Ohio 43402
> 419-352-5616
> tberry@wcnet.org
>
> A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!
>
> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to listserv@listserv.muohio.edu
>       In body of message:  SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname
>                     *or*:  UNSUB ARCHIVES
> To post a message, send e-mail to archives@listserv.muohio.edu
>
> Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at
>      http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html
>
> Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>
>

A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!

To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to listserv@listserv.muohio.edu
      In body of message:  SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname
                    *or*:  UNSUB ARCHIVES
To post a message, send e-mail to archives@listserv.muohio.edu

Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at
     http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html

Problems?  Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu>