Moving archival material
If archival material is to be held off-site you must consider how to transport documents to and from the store. The procedures for moving material should ensure that items are not damaged during transit and arrive safely at their intended destination. Each time a document is moved out of a building it is placed at risk of damage, theft or destruction. This section attempts to reduce the risk of this occurring.
Transport
Inevitably, the movement of archival material requires the use of an appropriately sized vehicle. This would usually be in the form of a van, preferably fitted with equipment designed to keep items secure during transit. The size of the vehicle will depend on the nature of material held in the store, but it should be large enough to transport any item safely.
Avoid transporting material in staff cars, as this represents an insurance risk and may increase the potential damage to items.
Some services have the use of their own vehicle, or they may have access to a van, and maybe a driver, belonging to their governing body, perhaps shared with library or museum colleagues. Either of these options gives a certain degree of flexibility and may mitigate some of the potential risks incurred from transporting archival material.
However, for some services this may not be an option, and they might have to rely upon a courier company. This option may be particularly relevant to services that retain infrequently used material in their store or who use commercial storage, perhaps at a considerable distance from the main access point.
When considering buying in the services of a courier company, it may be advisable to consider the following points:
- Have they had experience of handling archival material before?
- Are they recommended by another archive service?
- Is training needed in manual handling of archival material?
- Do they have appropriate transport for outsize and/or fragile material?
- Who is liable for the material in transit?
- Can the courier company provide evidence of appropriate security vetting of staff?
- What is their pricing structure?
- Is there a costly monthly fee for a service you may only use three or four times a year?
- Can they guarantee to meet the required turn-around times?
- How often will you require their services – regularly timetabled or as-and-when?
- Can a member of staff accompany the van?
- Will your records be transported on their own, or grouped with other deliveries, which would be less secure, with a potentially greater risk of misplacement?
- What are the insurance arrangements?
Handling
We recommend that appropriately trained archival staff undertake the retrieval and packing of items and their subsequent unpacking and reshelving. This should help to negate the handling risks to both staff and archives. It may also be advisable to undertake a formal manual handling assessment of the processes involved in moving material between the store and the access site.
There must be appropriate equipment available in the store for the safe movement of archival items, including steps, ladders and trolleys. These should be in good working order and of adequate size and design to retrieve and move material safely. If the store is on different levels, and heavy items regularly collected, some form of lift should be installed so that material does not have to be transported up and down stairs manually. If heavy and unwieldy items are to be transported between sites regularly then it is advisable that the van is also equipped with some form of lifting equipment.
Packing
There are risks of damage to records from handling and transport to and from an out store. Archives in the store should already be packaged appropriately according to BS 4971:2017.
However, you may need to pack them into containers before you can move them. It is important that any containers used for transporting archives are adequate for the task. They should be large enough to accommodate their intended contents comfortably and robust enough to offer protection from damage during transit. To further protect documents and reduce vibration, line containers with padding such as bubble-wrap, and pack out any excess space in the container with additional padding.
Outsized material requires more specialist equipment to transport it safely between sites. If equipment, such as bespoke carry cases, is not available, give serious consideration to whether they should be held off-site at all.
If there is no covered loading bay at one or both ends of the journey, consider how items will be kept dry during inclement weather. There are also risks to collections from large and rapid changes in environmental conditions during transfer between sites.
For fragile or delicate material, it may be preferable to provide users with digital surrogates, rather than risk potentially damaging items in transit.
Where possible, archival staff should undertake retrieval, packing and reshelving of archival items. This may not be possible in commercial storage, so factor this into your risk assessment. If separate personnel (such as porters or couriers) are involved in transporting the material, put procedures in place so that enough time is allocated for staff to retrieve and pack items before collection.
Clearly label items to be collected and/or returned by a third party and ensure the labelling will not become displaced during transit.
Build the risk of theft during transit into your risk assessments.
Documentation
The increased risk of losing or misplacing items when storing material off-site means that the movement of material needs to be documented thoroughly.
All boxes and packages must be carefully labelled before being moved to an out store. Staff or the commercial partner will need to create comprehensive location guides, and these must be accurately maintained to consider future movements and withdrawals. Staff visits to retrieve items may be brief, so they need to be able to locate items easily. If the service controls its own out store there is an option for staff to physically search for misplaced or incorrectly identified material, but this may not be possible in commercial storage.
Public finding aids should be sufficiently detailed for users to accurately order the items they want and should be marked up to indicate timescales for requesting items.
The system for tracking items may vary from service to service, but at the very least documentation should exist to cover:
- when items are requested, and by whom
- when they are retrieved and by whom
- when they are returned and by whom
Some services now use bar-coding technology to keep track of their collections.
If a third party is involved in the transportation of material, this too needs to be documented. In addition, make sure to label containers and list the contents.
It is also advisable to maintain a signing in/out book when staff enter and leave the remote store.
Environment and security
A remote store will usually be staffed less frequently than an on-site store. Risks to collections are therefore greater as it may take longer to identify issues and response times will be longer. Suitable security measures and fire and flood monitoring should be in place.
Environmental readings should be made regularly if there are no remote sensors. Equipment should be regularly calibrated so that readings are accurate. Visiting staff should be aware of risks to collections such as mould, insects and rodents, and check for any signs of damage whenever they visit, as well as inspecting the fabric of the building.
Where commercial storage is used, your own staff may not have access to the building. You will need reassurance that suitable security measures and environmental monitoring are in place, and that the supplier’s staff are suitably vetted and trained to undertake the necessary checks. Consider whether your records are stored in a discrete area, or shelved among those of other clients. Build these issues into your risk assessment and contract.