Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
A Beacon for Preservation
High-density Mobile Storage protecting US literary treasures.
To protect rare and historic U.S. literary treasures against the ravages of time, a team of experts set out to rescue the irreplaceable collections at the State Library of Pennsylvania. Special considerations called for a unique storage solution that would take the protection and preservation of paper-based archives to new heights.
Project architect Cornelius Rusnov partnered with Cheryl Micka of StorageTek, Inc., the local Spacesaver representative and member of the nationwide Spaceaver Group of independent contractors, to plan and design a storage solution matched to the overarching conservation goals and exacting specifications of the collections.
Early on, officials needed assurance that powered High-Density Mobile Storage (HDMS) systems would protect and preserve the irreplaceable and fragile materials. With that, the team took extra measures, including the creation of HDMS system mock-ups and a battery of tests, to validate the systems’ capabilities. The systems passed the architect’s examination with flying colors, as well as the scrutiny of a panel comprised of national and international experts in the field of paper-based conservation.
Planning led to a solution centered on specially designed HDMS systems. Each Eclipse Powered System built for the library incorporates a host of features that support the preservation of rare paper-based collections. The same attention to detail was paid to static shelving systems that house the rare materials.
