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Re: Remote Storage



Much of what I have to say on this issue will relate to planning and executing the move rather than deciding what to move since I know nothing about your collection other than that you do have the papers of one Rhode Island Congressman (or at least you did have them about 30 years ago).
First I will agree wholeheartedly with those who recommended that there be no facilities for researchers to use the material at the remote storage place.  Therefore you would not need any tables and chairs, copy machine, or anything else researchers would use.  From my experience as a researcher very few institutions that have materials in a remote storage facility permit use of any materials there.  Rather, they bring the stuff to the main facility for folks to use.  
Now for planning the move.  This is based largely upon recent experience in having some folks move some materials within a storage facility and more recent experience in moving about 1200 boxes from a remote facility to a campus facility.  These materrials were the official state papers of a former governor of Texas, his personal papers, and the papers of his wife as First Lady of Texas.  [Yes, here in Texas we do refer to the Governor's wife as First Lady with capital letters.]

It is probably expecting too much of the typical movers available on a college or university campus to understand the concept of keeping boxes of papers in order unless some special arrangement is made.

I have found that the scheme I devised has worked quite well in getting the movers to keep boxes in order.

I devised large print labels (printed in 72 point type landscape orientation on 8 ½ inches by 11 inches) to attach to each box using Magic Scotch Tape, which can be removed without damaging the boxes.  Then I wrote consecutive numbers on every box starting with 1.  I then kept a running record of was in each box.  This was simply a brief note of the records series or campaign records, or personal papers, or gifts.  If you had multiple collections you could simply note on the list that boxes 1-10 are Smith papers, boxes 11-25 are Brown papers, 26-51 are records of the History Department, and on and on to the last box you transfer.  You can then create an alphabetical record of where each of the collections fits into the strage facility by the temporary labels you put on them as well as by the range, section, and shelves on which they are located.

Today was the first day of two days of moving this large collection, and everything seems to be working well with the crew keeping the boxes in order.  Thus it seems to me that the days I spent preparing the labels and putting them on the boxes was time well spent.

This is in direct contrast to what happened several months ago when another crew was brought in to move two or three series of official state papers, campaing records, and gifts materials forward a couple of ranges into space that had been reclaimed by reducing the amount of shelf space originally required to house other series before they were processed.  Although the movers were instructed to keep the boxes in order, they mixed up the state records with the other materials and got them as well as the campaign records (each box of which was numbered consecutively on all 4 sides of each box) into horrible disaray.  It took me a couple of days to straighten that all out in preparing for the current move.

In summary, plan the move down to the most minute detail, talk to the movers about the importance of keeping the boxes in order by the large numbers on the temporary large labels you put on them.
Then check on them regularly to see that they are following instructions.  

Charles R. Schultz, CA
Professor and Clements Archivist
Cushing Library
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX  77843-5000
c-schultz@tamu.edu
979-862-1555
FAX 979-845-1441

State-of-the-art automation will never beat the wastebasket 
when it comes to speeding up efficiency in the office.
Ann Landers Gem of the Day, July 27, 1994

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