Have you considered widening the doorways?  For a thousand cabinets, I would
consider modifying the path and keeping the drawers in the cabinets.  Then
move the cabinets in their original upright stacked position by means of a
mechanical lift.  It might prove to be less expensive, faster, and safer for
the maps.

"Free advice is worth what you pay for it."

-
Jim

James Speed Hensinger
[log in to unmask]
JHensinger.org

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Maps-L: Discussion Forum for Maps, Air Photo, Map Librarianship,
> GIS, etc. [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Brendan Whyte
> Sent: Sunday, January 04, 2015 3:45 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Moving map cabinets
> 
> I have had a personal map collection in 2 completely full cabinets
> shifted overseas and back and the removalists just hefted the full
> cabinets onto/off their truck by sheer muscle power, and even up 1.5
> flights of stairs to my apartment.
> But I agree it's not ideal for the cabinet, and if your doors are not
> wide enough, the removalists will just flip the cabinet on edge...
> 
> On a professional note, the National Library of Australia will shortly
> begin replacing its 1000 cabinets (stacked 3 high on compactus bases)
> in 3 stages over 2 years, which means we have to move the old cabinets
> out in batches to a staging area, install new ones (on new compactus
> bases), then move the maps themselves back in.
> Because our doorways are not wide enough to get the cabinets out flat,
> for each of the 10 drawers in each cabinet (10,000 drawers total) we
> will have to:
> 
> - place a piece of heavy card in the top of the drawer,
> - tape it in place (wide parcel tape crosswise around the cabinet),
> - stack the 10 drawers in order at 30 degrees  from vertical in a
> trolley.
> - wheel trolley to other end of building.
> - flip empty cabinet on end onto a trolley
> - wheel cabinet to other end of building
> - position cabinet correctly in staging area
> - untape drawers
> - install drawers in correct order.
> 
> We have a professional stack-moving company that does all the National
> Library's stack moving (usually books), but at least initially, this
> move will be supervised by maps staff.
> 
> The main trick with the staging area is that everything in it has to
> remain accessible for the 6 months it will sit there, so keeping all
> drawers and cabinets in order and correctly labelled is vital.
> 
> 
> Brendan Whyte
> National Library of Australia
> 
> 
>