I have a question. Is any decision here in the USA impacted by library compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act? I gather most of the distances being discussed comply with that standard, but is there an exemption for stacks not used by most public clients?

        Joel Kovarsky

We've just installed 10,000 drawers of 1m deep bespoke US-made cases (with proud handles additional to the 1m depth) in a compactus with 1.01m aisles (case front to case front, ignoring handles).

A standard sized user [i.e. non-obese/non-American] can stand behind the open drawer to remove/reshelve maps, and the drawers themselves are less deep than the 1m cabinet, so can be removed from the cases by two people, one each side of the drawer.

The aisle width was intended to allow drawers to be physically removed/replaced, but still maximise rows of cases and minimise aisle width. (and fit sensibly in our stack space which is studded with pillars).

Brendan Whyte

National Library of Australia

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Date:    Tue, 2 Aug 2016 02:26:04 +0000
From:    Kathy Stroud <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Best Practices - Aisle Width between map cases

All,

It seems I've seen this somewhere but I can't locate it.  Is there a best practice distance for placing map cases facing each other (what's the aisle width between map cases with drawers opening facing each other?)  We're going through re-envisioning our map space and I'll hoping for numbers to add weight to my estimates.  I already know that a 40" aisle is not going to be adequate for a 40" deep map case.  It would be impossible to get drawers in and out when needed and be difficult to work around fully opened drawers.  My gut feeling tells me that 48" is the minimum and 56" would be ideal.  This is an area that is open access to patrons so it's not just the librarians that need to be able to maneuver in the space.

Anyone have any authoritative sources?

Thanks in advanced,

Kathy