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Re: fire code compliance



Thanks to everyone for your assistance and information about fire code
compliance.  As an aside, I just found out today from one of the
construction workers that there already is a water pipe that goes directly
over the archives room. I have only been here a little over two years, but
we have never had a flood that involved that pipe. The only flood we have
had involved a construction worker hitting a pipe that caused a water backup
out of the bathroom floor drain that flooded the entire first floor of the
library and archives. Fortunately, the water was not very deep and all of
the books and other items do not actually touch the floor, so I only had to
remove the books on the bottom shelf and the shelf itself to get the floor
underneath to dry.

Most of those who responded to my question assured me that sprinklers are
not that bad and very rarely accidently go off. Water pipe leaks do
sometimes happen, however, and some people said that I could do things like
putting glass on the inside of the book display cases and draping plastic
sheeting over that compact shelving for the photographs. I can also push the
books and other things back from the edge of the bookcases to minimize the
possibility they would be hit with water. Some of the books, however, are as
deep as the shelf, so I would not be able to do this for all books. Peter
K., however, was concerned about the room meeting code at all, because it
only has one door. This is something I will have to check into. I now have
some information to take my boss and other higher ups.

Thanks to all. This list is great!

Barbara M. Pope, MLS
Reference Librarian
St. Louis College of Pharmacy
4588 Parkview Place
St. Louis MO 63110
(314) 367-8700 x. 1001
FAX (314) 454-3382


-----Original Message-----
From: Pope, Barbara
Sent: Tuesday, July 16, 2002 11:11 AM
To: 'archives@listserv.muohio.edu'
Subject: fire code compliance


Our archives room is a very tiny room, probably smaller than some people's
bedrooms.  Up to now, there have been no sprinklers in the room, which is
good, but I don't how we managed it. Our books and serials are housed in
wooden shelves which are built into the walls. They have a metal mesh in the
front, but no glass, and they are definitely not water proof. Our
photographs, drawings, slides, and negatives are housed in acid free boxes I
bought from Metal Edge and stacked in a short row of compact shelving, which
is also definitely not water proof.

Construction is being done on our building and so along with making most
things bigger (NOT the library or archives), they are also bringing
everything up to current code. They are going to install sprinklers in the
archives room. Yes, I said sprinklers. I realize I cannot ask for us not to
be fire code compliant, but what can I do to protect the collection from
ruin by potential accidental setting off of the sprinklers or a pipe leak,
but still be compliant with the fire code? How do you do this? Our
collection is not heavily used and I am usually the only one to go in the
room, so if a leak occurs during a weekend or something, it would not be
realized until at least the following Monday. So, short of buying all new
cabinets, what can I do? Any and all suggestions welcomed.

I apologize it it sounds like I am rambling. It just seems like many of the
decisions on this construction project were made without regard to how they
would affect the library and archives.

Barbara Pope
St. Louis College of Pharmacy
bpope@stlcop.edu

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