Mobile Shelving Project
in the Public Archives of Nova Scotia Building
Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management (NSARM) could not fulfil its stewardship and preservation statutory mandate because the 75,000 sq. ft. Public Archives of Nova Scotia (PANS) building in Halifax was full and archival records had to be relegated to offsite space that does meet stringent archival quality storage standards.
A number of options were explored to address the acute shortage of archival quality storage space. To expand the existing purpose built archives facility or retrofit another building to serve as an archives annexe were cost prohibitive. It was determined that to replace the static storage in the PANS building with high density, mobile storage was the most cost effective and operationally efficient approach to dramatically increase archival storage capacity in the same square footage without increasing recurring operational expenditures. Fortunately, the floors were designed and constructed to carry the extra weight of mobile storage.
A one million dollar, four year tangible capital asset project to supply and install a mobile storage system in the vaults throughout the PANS building was approved and initiated in 2002/03. The project is not limited to converting traditional static shelving to mobile shelving for boxed records storage. NSARM plans to mount an assortment of storage equipment on creatively configured mobile carriages, such as microfilm and map cabinets and pigeon hole and rolled storage units, and thereby extend space savings to all holdings, regardless of size, format and media.
Tabufile Atlantic Ltd. was awarded the contract to supply and install some 17,800 linear feet of Montel Mobilex mechanical assist shelving in 5,600 sq. ft. of vault space in 2002/03. Montel’s shelving is a quality product that satisfied all of the tender specifications, which is not surprising since it is installed in a number of major archival and heritage institutions across Canada.
W. Brian Speirs
Provincial Archivist
December 2002