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Re: shelving



Let me add to Clare's comments about installation.

We have always ordered shelving designed specifically for records storage.
We have ordered from the same vendor for the past 13 years.  The vendor
assembled and installed the shelving.  When we last ordered shelving, a
couple of years ago, the installers wanted to hurry up installation so they
could move on to a more lucrative job.  TO do this, they left a couple of
essential steps out of the installation process.  As a result, we had some
shelving collapse.  Fortunately, no one was injured.  But I considered it to
be a potentially life-threatening situation and refused to have my staff
work in the area until the shelving was correctly installed.  Of course, by
then they were working on the bigger project and couldn't get bat to us
until that one was completed.

The moral is, even if you know your vendors, and are sure that they know how
to correctly assemble and install your new shelving, check their work.  A
vendor may be tempted to take shortcuts, thinking he can get away with it
just this once.

I recommended to our Director of Purchasing that we no longer deal with that
vendor.  While my recommnedation was not taken, it was passed on to the
owner of the company.

Robin Tew
Supervisor, Records Management
Pinellas County Florida

--enjoying another beautiful day in sunny Florida!

From: Clare Bunce <bunce@CSHL.ORG>
Reply-To: Clare Bunce <bunce@CSHL.ORG>
To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
Subject: shelving
Date: Wed, 7 Mar 2001 16:44:56 -0500

Several years ago the shelving in our storage facility pulled out from the
wall and hurt an employee terribly. She suffered a bruised heart and broken
ribs. Thankfully, she was an athletic person and was able to get out from
under the weight of the books. Someone else might have been killed.

In the long run, the collection was put into boxes on pallets and no one
has access to the collection at all anymore. This has been a continuing
problem for years. It has cost money in interlibrary loans fees, storage
fees for unusable books and the collection will probably never be used.

I agree with Daniel Sokolow. Please be very careful ordering shelving. Make
sure the supplier is reputable and that the person who installs the
shelving is experienced with a library book collection. Many times people
are hired because they do general shelving work and they don't have the
experience to understand the weight load of books in a library or archives.

Clare Bunce
Archivist
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
1 Bungtown Road
Cold Spring Harbor, New York 11724
(516) 367-8414
email: bunce@cshl.org




Clare Bunce
Archivist
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
1 Bungtown Road
Cold Spring Harbor, New York 11724
(516) 367-8414
email: bunce@cshl.org

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A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List!

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