Museum Storage
Your mission is to preserve and protect the objects entrusted to your care, and our mission is to help. We support institutions of all sizes in their efforts to manage risk, boost community engagement, optimize space, and stretch limited budgets.
Manage Risk
While every collection is different, the risks to stored items generally fall into one of ten categories. It’s important to understand the “Ten Agents of Deterioration” in order to mitigate the effects of these damaging factors.
Direct Physical Forces
The risk: Sudden shock or long-term pressure breaks and deforms objects.
Mitigation
Optional earthquake bars prevent jars and objects on shelves from accidental falls and spills.
Anti-tip rail systems are designed to provide stability and reliability for compact shelving in seismically active areas.
Pests
The risk: Insects and rodents eat and nest in organic collections, while mold can consume and stain organic materials.
Mitigation
Perforated shelving improves ventilation.
Easily-cleanable, sealed cabinets keep pests away and allow for easy inspection.
Light-colored equipment facilitates pest detection.
Incorrect Temperature
The risk: High temperatures speed up the chemical deterioration of unstable materials.
Mitigation
To make the most efficient use of expensive cooler space, large institutions can use compactors housed in cold rooms and walk-in freezers.
Medium sized collections can use shelving or museum cabinets housed in walk-in coolers.
Smaller collections can use upright refrigerators or freezers.
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Ten Agents of Deterioration
How you can start planning today to better protect your collection.
Boost Engagement
As museums seek new ways to engage with their communities, Spacesaver is a proud partner in developing creative solutions for visible storage. Our local distributors work with architects and designers, as well as our in-house project management teams, to create systems that promote engagement while still maintaining the highest standards in collections care.
Learn how the Arizona State Museum helped visitors understand the breadth and depth of its renowned Southwest pottery and basketry collections.
Optimize Space
Space gets tight when collections grow, and this can result in cramped work areas for staff and less-than-optimal environmental conditions for collections. Optimizing space in collections areas helps promote efficiency, maintain organization, and protect collections.
High-Density Systems
High-density storage systems, often called “compactors,” eliminate empty aisle space by mounting shelving or cabinets on carriages that move along rails.
Structural Obstacles
Columns, ductwork, overhead sprinkler systems, and other structural obstacles pose unique challenges. Our consultants design storage systems that comply with applicable codes while still making the best use of available space.
Vertical Space
Our flexible manufacturing processes enable us to manufacture shelving and art racks of virtually any height, allowing our clients to take full advantage of the vertical space in their facilities.
Request A Space Assessment
Learn more about your options by requesting a free, no obligation space assessment from a nearby Spacesaver consultant.
Stretch Your Budget
We help institutions large and small make the best use of their space and their budget. While our products are not cheap, many of our clients find that our free space planning services, ability to repurpose and attention to detail end up saving precious funds in the long run.
Planning and Project Management Services
Spacesaver’s network of local distributors, backed up by our in-house planning and project management teams, offers unparalleled service and attention to detail. Your local Spacesaver consultant should get involved in the early planning stage to ensure the best result; he or she can even create preliminary drawings to show to potential funders.
Phased Approach
Part of the space planning process involves projecting future growth, even if funding is unavailable at the time of renovation or construction. Sometimes, for instance, rails for high-density systems are installed during construction and carriages are added years later, when collections have grown and more funding is available. The Columbia River Maritime Museum pursued a similar strategy, installing a rail system that could support full-height shelving but installing shorter shelving that should be able to accommodate the museum’s growing collection for the next 20 years. The museum is planning to invest in taller shelves at that time and installing it on the existing rails.
Repurposing
Our engineering and manufacturing teams can design and build new cabinets, shelving, drawers, trays, and other storage equipment to integrate seamlessly with your institution’s existing assets. For instance, we worked with the Chicago Field Museum to design and build cabinets that accommodated entomology drawers that the institution already owned.
Contracts
Spacesaver products can be purchased at significant savings through GSA contracts, various state contracts, Sourcewell, and OMNIA.
Six Ways to Fund Your Collections Storage Project
Learn about options for acquiring funding that support long-term collections management goals while balancing short-term financial needs.
