Storage furniture should be constructed of any of the following:
Stacks should be regularly checked to see if their coating has been severely scratched and/or worn away. Exposed metal without coating will degrade books very quickly so contact preservation if this has occurred.
Storage furniture should have a smooth, non-abrasive surface and should be free of sharp edges and damaging protrusions.
Furniture and shelving need to be anchored so that they will not wobble or tip.
The lowest shelving should be 4-6" above the floor to protect from water damage from cleaning floors and especially in case of flooding or other water-related events.
Furniture with drawers should be regularly checked by staff for micro-climates causing mold. Wooden drawers should be avoided for collection items. Wood drawers will off-gas much longer and damage collection items inside.
Drawers should have dust covers or rear hoods to prevent items from being damaged at the back of the drawer.
Drawers should have stops to prevent them coming all the way out of the cabinets.
Drawers should have ball bearings rather than slide in grooves to reduce vibrations to items.
Flat file drawers should be 2" deep or less and not overfilled.
Static shelving should be placed far apart enough to accommodate large carts moving through them without bumping into collection items.
Static shelving should also not cover any vents or grills in the room. See The Building Environment--Integrated Pest Management section for more details.
Movable shelving should be made of the same safe material as static shelving.
Movable shelving should be manual if possible as manual can still be moved in a disaster situation when the electricity is out. Manually moved shelving also does not break as often as mechanical shelving and is much safer for employees and researchers.
Shelving that is often kept closed or rarely moved should be monitored closely for micro-climates. Stacks-maintenance employees should regularly move shelving if it is rarely used to allow good air circulation between all the shelves.
Mechanical shelving requires safety training for all employees working around them. All employees should be trained to know where the safety sensors are in case someone triggers the shelving while someone is in between the shelves. Employees should also learn how to work the mechanisms so they can stop the shelves from moving while doing their work between shelves.
Oversized shelving should be made of the same safe material as noted in the Static Shelving portion of this section.
Oversized shelving is an important part of a library and should be used for large books that cannot fit normal-sized shelving and for large quantities of books that will go into storage for long periods of time.
Oversized shelving should accommodate books lying flat on their sides/covers. Oversized books are particularly susceptible to warping due to inappropriate storing on shelves. Regularly checking to make sure that oversized books are not slumping over or in disarray is important.
Do not stack more than four books on top of each other--especially large, heavy, oversized items. The heaviest book should be stacked on the bottom with the lightest book on the top of the stack.
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