Mobile Shelving Project

The inevitable consequence of over ten years The Old Storageof actively collecting material relevant to the heritage of Dacorum, meant that finding space within the Museum Store was becoming increasingly difficult. The current shelving also posed a significant health and safety hazard. Boxes and display panels were stacked to the ceiling, making them impossible to remove safely and the majority of the existing shelving was unsuitable for the loads.

Staff with the mobile shelving

Phase 1

Investigations revealed that the installation of mobile shelving would allow us to provide over 50% more storage space in the General Store. It would also fulfil Health and Safety requirements meaning that retrieving boxes would no longer be a balancing act!

Phase 1 of the mobile shelving was installed by Rackline of Staffordshire at the end of May. Around 25,000 objects were re-located during the project - thank you to all the volunteers who helped us move boxes. We have also updated all of the details onto our computerised collection management system, Modes.

As there is no museum of local history in Dacorum, the Museum Store is the focal point and as such is very much a working environment, rather than simply a storage area. The new shelving will benefit the Staff with the mobile shelvingcollections, visitors, volunteers and staff.

 

Phase 2

We are pleased to announce that the funds for Phase 2 of the Mobile Shelving have been succesfully raised. The project will transform the Archaeology Store by doubling the storage capacity. It will also enable the existing collections to be reorganised so that material is more accesible.

The shelving has been installed. It is now ready for the shelves to be restacked. It will be several months before all the material has been put on the shelves and catalogued onto our Database Management System. Volunteer, Zuzana Kuratkova using the new shelving

Funding

Securing the funding has been an amazing achievement, for which we should thank Eric Edwards, our Fundraising Director. We are extremely grateful to the following organisations who made our mobile shelving a possibility:

Arnold Burton Charitable Trust
Association of Independent Museums
Awards for All
Box Moor Trust
Christopher Laing Foundation
Dacorum Borough Council
Dacorum Community Trust
Francis Coales Charitable FoundationVolunteers, Jayne Hilton, John Pitkin and Geoff Dean helping to move boxes
Joan Webb
Manifold Trust
News International
Patricia Beavis
Peter Ward
University of the Third Age
Virginia Gordon

 

 


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