-------- Original Message -------- Subject: RE: Transferring legacy collections of sheet maps to high density storage Date: Wed, 15 May 2013 19:56:50 +0000 From: Hallie Pritchett <[log in to unmask]> To: Maps, Air Photo, GIS Forum - Map Librarianship <[log in to unmask]> Here are a few more citations for articles related to map collection storage and moving: Armstrong, HelenJane. “Compacting Your Collection: Innovative Strategies in Map Storage.” Special Libraries Association. Geography and Map Division. Bulletin 167 (1992): 2-20. Campbell, Lyn. “Transport, packing and storage of maps.” The Globe 40 (1994): 38-39. Carlucci, April. “Physical Considerations of the Storage of Printed Cartographic Materials in Libraries, or, My Life in a Map Case.” Cartographic Journal 42.3 (2005): 245–54. Pritchett, Hallie. “Introducing the New UGA Map and Government Information Library.” Cartographic Perspectives. 72 (2012): 67-74. Snow, Cason. “Maps for the Ages: an Overview of the Preservation of Sheet Maps.” Journal of Map and Geography Libraries 6.2 (2010): 112-28. Last spring/summer, we moved our former Map Library from an off-campus warehouse to a newly remodeled facility in the subbasement of our Main Library; the specifics are discussed in my article listed above. Our collection includes approximately 400,000 maps, 240,000 air photos, and several thousand books and atlases; everything was packed up and moved. Based on my experiences, here are a few suggestions for moving a collection: - Do as much sorting, weeding and preservation work as possible before you move - it's much easier to move an organized collection and you don't want to move anything you don't plan to keep. - Make a list of everything that needs to be done before the move happens and prioritize - start from the planned moved date and work backwards. Decide what absolutely has to be done before the move itself, what should ideally be done before the move, and what can wait if necessary. Ideally, you'll get everything done before the move - in reality, probably not. Plan accordingly. - Decide how your collection will be organized in its new space well before you move it. This includes whether or not you will store all your maps flat, rolled, or folded in drawers. Make detailed floor plans and lists down to the drawer, box and/or shelf level. - If you are going to store your maps flat (which is recommended), put them in map folders - this will keep them together in the drawer and make them easier to access. - Decide early who is going to pack your materials and how, so you have the necessary supplies on hand. In our case, we were competing with our Special Collections Libraries for staff and boxes, so we often had relatively narrow windows of opportunity to pack and move. My staff and I wound up packing up all of our air photos, books, atlases and miscellaneous office stuff; while the maps were moved in their cases, we still had to shift the entire collection before it was moved to make better use of our map cases. - Clearly mark the actual items being moved (i.e. map case, folder, etc) and where it will be moved to. Our map cases were moved loaded, so we marked ever single drawer and case with erasable China marker so make sure things stayed in order. Post-it notes with full-back adhesive also work well - they don't fall off. - Plan on spending time after the move doing some rearranging and reconfiguring. No matter how much planning and work you do in advance, something is bound to go wrong - make sure to factor this in. - Most importantly, make sure you are directly involved in every aspect of the move itself. Make sure you are part an integral part of the planning process; most likely very few of your colleagues know anything about the logistics of working with map collections. Also, make sure you supervise the move itself, particularly if you use professional movers. While this doesn't mean you have to be the one who physically moves the maps, you need to be available to direct traffic and answer questions. We always made sure that someone was in the old location when items were taken out as well as the new location when items were brought in to make sure everything wound up in its proper place. On final thought - the Library of Congress Geography and Map Division moved a number of their maps into off-site storage several years ago. As I recall, they store their maps in large flat boxes, but bring the entire box back to G&M when someone requests a map. It's easier to retrieve an entire box than individual maps, and they make sure that only trained staff are handling them maps themselves. Double-check with them that I got the details right, though. Hope that helps! If you have any further questions or would like more details about our move, I would be happy to talk to you by phone. Good luck with your move! Hallie Pritchett Map and Federal Regional Depository Librarian University of Georgia Libraries Athens, GA 30602 [log in to unmask] 706-542-0664 706-583-0631 (FAX) Map and Government Information Library - http://www.libs.uga.edu/magil/ ________________________________________ From: Maps, Air Photo, GIS Forum - Map Librarianship [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Angie Cope, American Geographical Society Library, UW Milwaukee [[log in to unmask]] Sent: Wednesday, May 15, 2013 11:09 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Transferring legacy collections of sheet maps to high density storage -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: Transferring legacy collections of sheet maps to high density storage Date: Wed, 15 May 2013 10:42:55 -0400 (EDT) From: Paige G Andrew <[log in to unmask]> To: Air Photo Maps, GIS Forum - Map Librarianship <[log in to unmask]> Hi Rudolf, You've got a LOT of questions and good/valid concerns here. I might be able to help a tad by pointing you to a couple of articles on the topic of effectively moving major map collections to a different location, though not necessarily high-density storage. I think the information will be valuable no matter where or what the remote location would be. I might add also that when we decided, for storage-stress reasons, to move the majority of our map sets/series off-site about 3 years ago Marcy immediately and insightfully noted that we must maintain access to these at the sheet level for our patrons, and we set up and tackled not only creating bib. records for the titles needing them but also the more tedious task of itemizing each sheet involved and its paid off already. LOTS of part-time student assistance as well as the time of four catalogers in our department but we completed that project in something like 14-16 months. Anyway, here's a citation to get you started and I kn! ow others have written on this topic in the past (and probably the first person I know of who moved a major map collection into "condensed" storage on-site, yet a different scenario, is HelenJane Armstrong, retired Curator of the Maps Collection at the Univ. of Florida, who I'm positive had an article published in something like the WAML IB or maybe the SLA G&M Division Bulletin): March, Gregory H. "Using AutoCAD to Help Relocate a Map Collection: The University of Tennessee Libraries' Experience". Journal of Map & Geography Libraries, vol. 5, no. 2 (2009), pp. 157-173. Paige ----- Original Message ----- From: "Angie Cope, American Geographical Society Library, UW Milwaukee" <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] Sent: Tuesday, May 14, 2013 2:27:33 PM Subject: Transferring legacy collections of sheet maps to high density storage ------- Original Message -------- Subject: Transferring legacy collections of sheet maps to high density storage Date: Tue, 14 May 2013 11:22:14 -0700 From: Rudi Traichel <[log in to unmask]> Organization: The University of British Columbia Library To: <[log in to unmask]> Good day everyone: I am looking for advice on a challenge that seems to becoming more and more common these days for libraries. I understand that the issue of moving legacy sheet map collections from a campus library (either in public or easily accessible storage areas) to on and off site High Density storage facilities has come up before on this list-serv, but I would like to bring this issue forward again. UBC Library in Vancouver, B.C. needs to move many 1000s of superseded national topographic series (Canadian, etc.) and low use thematic map sheets (folded, rolled, flat) maps into a high density storage facility that should be built on our campus by late 2014 or early 2015. This leaves us a little over 18 months to do this job, partially or fully. Most of these maps are post 1900 (earlier maps are generally housed in our Rare Books and Special Collections Library). Many of these sheets are not in folders, rather in map drawers. Some are folded and in standard sized envelopes in file cabinets. Others are rolled and in map tubes. Some require stabilization due to condition issues. Some of the maps will have to be reorganized in the existing map drawers. Some will require the creation or upgrading of bibliographic records, many will need detailed holdings, many more will need detailed items. I would just like to make sure that our patrons/researchers/broader library community will continue to be able to identify and retrieve the superseded and lower use portion of our map resources once they are removed from direct public/staff access to HD storage. Does anyone know of any documentation that outlines best practices and strategies for the successful and timely completion of similar legacy map inventorying projects that were completed at other institutions for HD or similar storage facilities? Or would anyone be willing to share their strategies for taking on similar map/storage projects? What types of challenges did you encounter that we should keep in mind for while doing this work? As well, how many staff were required to complete the project? What type of skills and training did they require to ensure that the work was done well and effectively? What would you consider to be the minimal/basic standard for inventorying maps finding their way into an HD facility? As well, in light of moving collections to an HD or similar storage facility, did your institution make tough decisions on weeding your map collections? Generally what criteria did you use to help you decide what you absolutely must or should or maybe or perhaps not keep (that is, what was core to your patron/research community)? What criteria did you use to decide what could be found elsewhere (for instance, Are they available at other libraries or accessible digitally)? What role did local, regional, etc. 'last copy' guidelines play in these decisions. Are there other important questions that I should consider and carefully ponder before embarking on this sizable map processing project? I know that I have loaded this e-mail with a rather large number of weighty and perhaps difficult to answer questions, but any advice, referrals, or assistance would be most welcome and much appreciated. In the end all of this will come down to good planning, hard work, sticktoitiveness, and attention to detail. Best regards, Rudolf Traichel -- Rudolf Traichel Cataloguing & Technical Services (CTS) Librarian Rare Cartographic Materials Cataloguer (RBSC) University of British Columbia Library Tech. Services – Cataloguing Division Floor 3 – Woodward Library 2198 Health Sciences Mall Vancouver BC V6T 1Z3 CANADA CTS Tel:(604) 822-3083 : RBSC Tel: 604-822-8208 ; Fax: (604) 822-3201 (@ RBSC: Wed. A.M. ; Fri. PM / @ CTS Mon. & Tues. all day ; Wed. P.M. ; Fri. A.M.)