Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs 39. (1986)
Archive Buildings and the Conservation of Archival Material. An Expert Meeting, held in Vienna, Austria October 30 - November 1, 1985 - STEWART, William J.: Summary of Discussions
Summary of Discussions 259 it realistic or feasible to set up rules or recommendations for the amount of space to be reserved in a newly-built repository for future acquisitions? And my second question: You will use movable compact shelving. Now if you have a unit of five or six rows will it be necessary, when you want material from the sixth row, to move the five preceding rows one by one or will it be possible to move them all together? Buchmann: Permit me to answer your question about movable shelving first, as it is the easiest. We had an expectation, based on representations from the manufacturer, that the rows could be moved together. That was the theory at any rate. However, after loading some of the shelves we noticed that to manually move four or five rows demanded real physical effort. So when the shelves are fully loaded I fear it will be necessary to move them one at a time. Frankly this was not anticipated and we are discussing the matter with the manufacturer. This is not a problem if you install movable shelving that is electrically operated. We rejected electrical assistance in the Bundesarchiv because it meant additional wiring and with it increased danger from fire in the stacks. There is another drawback, if you lose power, of course, you cannot move the rows at all. Now may I take up your question about planning for the future. Projecting space needs to a point ten or fifteen years in the distance is a most hazardous undertaking. There are just too many variables, too many unforeseen circumstances to deal with. If you do make a projection to the governing authorities and you err, it may well damage your reputation and make future dealings difficult. When looking to the future there are ways of building in a little extra, a “cushion” so to speak. When you prepare a construction prospectus, base your storage requirements on stationary shelving but at the same time plan for expansion by designing stacks that can be converted to mobile shelving at a later time. By converting stationary shelving to the mobile compact type you should increase available space by twenty to twenty-five percent. There is really no need to discuss this during the planning phase. After construction is underway you can request a work change order, asking that rails only be put in place. This design change is incidental and the cost minimal, however you are now ready for conversion whenever the need arises. Due he in: This concludes our first session and before moving on I should like to offer a brief summation. I want to thank Dr Buchmann for his report as well as those participants who offered interventions. Now for my summary: first, the selection of an architect is not always a matter of choice for the archivist, sometimes an architect is imposed upon us, being a matter of policy in some countries. If the architect is selected by others he may know absolutely nothing about archives. For that reason, you the archivist must prepare full and exacting instructions. No matter who selects the architect it is the archivist’s responsibility to prepare a satisfactory brief, one precise and detailed enough 17*
