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My personal preference is certainly for 3-high
map cases - no ladders needed, nice storage
place for refiling, appropriate for earthquake-threat
areas. And of course floor load is a concern when a
library is anywhere except the ground floor (or whatever
the lowest floor is in your building). But we did
check when we were planning the map area of this
library's storage facility - which has only one
floor (it's an old automobile-manufacturing plant) -
and the map-case makers said 6 high was what their
bases could stand. Santa Barbara has had the
(geographical) good fortune not have had the earthquakes
as impressive as those in the Bay area - so far.
Mary Larsgaard