Spacesaver Archival Vault Compact Storage

History On The Move

Northeast Arkansas Regional Archives (NEARA), branch of the Arkansas History Commission (State Archives), located in Powhatan, Arkansas recently built a new vault storage facility.  The vault stores a variety of research resources related to northeast Arkansas, including traditional archival material such as letters, diaries, maps, photographs, newspapers, books, periodicals, broadsides, and approximately 500 cubic feet of Lawrence County government records.

Compact Archival Vault Shelving

The new climate controlled Northeast Arkansas Regional Archives vault facility was designed around a Spacesaver^® ActivRAC™ Compact High-Density space saving storage system from Southwest Solutions Group. The compact storage system is uniquely designed to save floor space by converting unused static aisle space into productive storage space. The compact storage system mounts shelving and cabinets onto movable rolling carriages and places them on floor tracks.  Entire rows of shelving move sideways along tracks creating a movable floating access aisle.  Converting static aisles into productive storage space with high density mobile shelving maximizes the use of the vault’s floor space. The compact storage shelving allowed NEARA to greatly reduce the size of the vault building, lowering construction costs and future operational energy costs.

Protecting Archives From Infestation

The archival compact shelving system was designed with all movable carriages (shelving) to help preserve archived items.  Since the entire shelving system is movable, there are no static shelving units for destructive rodents/pests to hide under, helping tremendously with NEARA’s infestation control policy.  The NEARA archival vault’s compact shelving minimized construction costs while providing energy saving reductions to maintain the humidity and temperature within the storage vault.   The new vault with the compact high-density storage system is 1,523 square feet holding 4,320 archival boxes and 344 lineal feet of book storage. If traditional stationary shelving would have been used, instead of compact high-density storage, the vault would have only housed 2,160 archival boxes.  A 2,723 square foot vault would of been required in order to house the 4,320 archival boxes using traditional stationary shelving.

Spacesaver Motorized Shelving Safety System

The Spacesaver ActivRAC Compact Series 16 Storage System with motorized push-button controls provides fail-safe operation. Infrared photoelectric safety beams scan both sides of rolling carriages to protect users and stored materials in the system.  If an object or person is detected, the power shuts down to prevent movement and ensure safety.  Artifact exposure to dust is minimized by silicone seals located on the compact shelving to help provide an airtight storage environment.  Entire system is U.L. Listed.

Spacesaver Compact Vault Shelving Resources

Download NEARA Compact Vault Storage Shelving Case Study

Download Spacesaver ActivRAC Series 16 Brochure

For more information on Spacesaver Compact Vault Shelving, call toll free 1-800-803-1083 or contact one of our offices below.