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Ligue des Bibliothèques Europeénnes de Recherche, Groupe des Cartothécaires de LIBER
The Map Library is the major national repository of maps and atlases, and since 1914 the Students Room has been sited in the King Edward VII wing of the British Museum building at Bloomsbury. For a number of years it has not been possible to house the collections in the immediate vicinity of the Students Room, and so outhousing is required to accommodate the 1,500,000 sheet maps, 38,000 atlases, 80 globes and 200 relief models. The circumstances of the move is bound up both with size and utility of these outhouses, and with the accommodation problems of the British Library generally.
Before 1981, the remote storage areas comprised:
The annual intake of sheet maps was about 19,.000. In addition, the backlog of some 74,000 sheets was by 1984 being processed at the rate of 18,000 sheets a year, of which about half were duplicates and of which the other half (9,000 sheets) were incorporated into the collections. Some 28,000 sheets in all wou1d be processed until 1987-88, by which time the total would fall to about 17,000-25,000. Sheet maps are housed in steel cabinets and wrapped in manila folders for protection, about 50 to a drawer. This gave an annual requirement for 560 empty drawers, or 28 plan-chests 20 drawers high. The total growth space available in all repositories by 1984 was 1,476 drawers including existing drawers not filled to capacity. Even if the collections were continually rearranged therefore, the entire collection would solidify in two to three years.
We therefore had to move. We were also pushed by the accommodation requirements of the larger organisation of which we are a part. The Bibliographic Services Division (BSD) operated a computer services department, based in a rented warehouse in Rathbone Street, the lease for which was due to expire in 1986. By the end of 1983, it had been agreed in principle that the top floor of Novello House should be emptied of maps to make way for this department, thus uniting the whole of BSD under one roof. Having accepted the necessity of moving, it was important that a number of minimum requirements were satisfied when considering a new site. The repositories were, after all, active growth points where incoming material had to be identified, sorted and interfiled. Staff facilities were thus important, as was staff access. Woolwich was so remote as to prevent regular attendance, and if the site was to be out of central London, extra staff would have to be based there permanently. Moreover, the large-scale plans of the Ordnance Survey were used by some sixty percent of the readership of the Map Library, and easy access was vital. It was also desirable for the collection to be housed at one site, as experience with Novello/Sheraton House had revealed staffing and supply difficulties when operating two repositories rather than one. The repository had to have sufficient space for plenty of level surfaces at work-top height on the cabinets even when the repository had reached maximum capacity; in other words, stacks of cabinets could reach 28, 32 or 40 drawers high only in alternative position with stacks 20 drawers high, the optimum for a suitable work surface. Needless to say, the repository had to be secure.
The repository also had to fit in with the wider accommodation strategy of the library as a whole. In November 1980, the Government announced the go-ahead for a new building to accommodate many of the parts of the library now widely dispersed throughout London. The Map Library, however, is not due to move in the new building, on the Euston Road, until after 1994. Any repository would thus have to accommodate at least eight years growth of the collection -176,000 sheets, not including the incorporated backlog.
The first and indeed only obvious building in any way suitable was a recently-occupied Library repository at Micawber Street, in Islington, about one mile east of Bloomsbury .The building, constructed in the mid-1960's, was a former bonded warehouse belonging to Whitbreads and was thus very secure. The Library operated a van service between Micawber Street and Bloomsbury three times daily, thus giving tolerable access for both materials and personnel. Staff facilities, including a rest room and kitchenette, were also good. The building incorporated three large garages running parallel to the main structure which were deemed suitable for map stores. The limited option with which we were presented reflected the financial constraints upon the Library's accommodation budget, which already had 15 sites throughout London, and which effectively ruled out the consideration of a dedicated building for the Map Library .These constraints were compounded by the cost of the St. Pancras accommodation strategy in the run-up to 1991, when the first phase of the new building is due to be opened.
Before anything further was done, we had to establish whether these garages offered sufficient space, not only for the existing collections but for future growth. Prior to any conversion work starting on the site, the architect commissioned to undertake the project presented to the Map Library in October 1984 a plan which showed that growth space in the converted garages would be available until 1991-1992. By this time, a further section of Micawber Street would become available as the basement stores of St. Pancras would be completed and would house sections of Micawber Street. Discussions then began about the practicalities of converting the three garages into map stores. As staff would be working permanently in the stores, daylight would be required. There were no windows in the garages, so it was proposed to remove the eight existing steel roller shutters and to replace them with walls into which would be built fixed high-level windows. The requirement for both daylight and security subsequently proved to be one of the biggest headaches during the conversion period. As the stores were built as garages, planning consent was required for the change of use. The local authority from which this had to be obtained, Hackney Borough Council, would consent to the change only on condition that the stores could be reused as garages when the library surrendered its lease -in other words, no walls could be built. In consequence, the plans had to be modified, and an alternative to walls had to be found.
The architect's solution was to replace roller shutters with overhead doors manufactured by Crawfords, a company based in Milton Keynes. These doors consisted of a sandwich of polyurethane, and had the advantage that windows could be inserted. Nevertheless, certain modifications had to be made to them before they were acceptable; they had to be fitted with weatherproof sills on the base and sides, and they had to be approved for security. To this end, the National Security Advisor for the Museums and Galleries Commission was contacted. He recommended that the doors be fitted with steel trusses, and that the corner of each door be padlocked to the floor. The windows, originally to be of poly-carbonate eventually had to be made of glass with a steel mesh grille on the inside to conform with the GLC Fire regulations. By the time planning consent had been obtained it was well after Easter, and the time-table for the start of the move had slipped to the beginning of November. Nevertheless, all paperwork including builders contracts had been cleared by the end of July 1985, with a start date of September, 2nd and a completion date of mid-November established.
Whilst work was in process, the physical movement of the collections had to be considered. The first meeting with the Crown Suppliers, who were to be responsible for drawing up and letting the removal contract and for subcontracting the work of unbolting and reassembling the cabinets, took place in late September 1985. By that stage, we in the Map Library had already prepared plans concerning the exact siting of the cabinets and their contents in their new home. Firstly, we had to decide on the dispositions of the various elements of the collection in the three stores. As the UK and Irish Ordnance Surveys and the Admiralty charts still contained considerable growth space within their existing allocation of drawers, these were to be housed in the two smaller stores, 1 and 3. The general collection, to which would have to be added the backlog as well as material decanted from the King Edward Basement, together with the USGS, would be housed in store 2. Then, we had to devise a scheme which would overcome the difficulty of rearranging the cabinets from their old configuration where they were mostly stacked two high, to a new arrangement were many of them would be in stacks three high. This scheme would have to preserve the correct sequencing of the collections, all in shelfmark order of, in the case of the OS material, in sheet number order. Also, each drawer had to go back to its exact slot in the right cabinet once removed, because we feared that drawers incorrectly repositioned might jam. The scheme we devised required the labelling of each drawer as follows:
To move the maps, we felt initially that it would be necessary to empty each drawer, placing the maps in their folders in cardboard boxes, with drawers cabinets and map travelling separately and being reunited at their destination. It was not long, however, before we considered whether the drawers themselves could be used to transport the maps. The engineers who manufactured the cabinets confirmed that no damage would occur to either drawers, cabinets or maps if certain precautions were taken. To protect the maps, the removal contractors would have to supply hardboard covers which would be inserted into each drawer as it was moved. The drawers would then be stacked on a wooden pallet to a maximum of twelve, each separated by two wooden battens. Polypropylene straps would then be used to bind the drawers to a pallet, which would then be moved out on a pallet truck. The cabinet engineers would themselves be on hand during the course of the move dismantling and reassembling the cabinets.
A second meeting was held with the Crown suppliers in mid-December, to which representatives of the three removal firms competing for the contract had been invited. By this time, the library assistants had already made a start on labelling the 400 cabinets and 4,000 drawers, and had checked to ensure that all maps were in folders; Micawber Street was also nearing completion. At this meeting it was established that security wardens would accompany every vanload of maps from Soho to Islington. Polythene sheeting was to be on hand in case of rain. The Library was to contact the Traffic Warden's Departments of the West Central Police Station, to ask for permission for lorries to be parked in the neighbouring streets whilst the move was under way.
On December 20th, the builders handed Micawber Street over to the Library, and the removal firm was scheduled to start work on January 13th. On December 23rd we issued a press notice informing the public of the move, pointing out that sections of the stock wou1d be unavailable for consultation during the new year. It remained for me to pray for a mild winter! On January 6th, 1986, the new stores were formally handed over to the Map Library, on which date we discovered to our consternation that the floors were uneven in a number of places. This, apparently, had resulted from the endeavours of the architect to keep within the budget allocated for the conversion. To save money, he had removed the asphalt surface (which would not have taken the weight of the cabinets) and had laid the floor covering direct onto the concrete base. After some heated debate between ourselves, the library's accommodation officer, the architect, the Crown Suppliers and the cabinet engineers, a solution was found. Over the worst affected areas, plywood plinths would be built onto which the cabinets would be sited.
To the public, we had announced that the evacuation of Novello House would take until 28th February, altogether seven weeks, with a further seven weeks for the removal of Sheraton House basement. We had erred on the generous side, to allow for any 'circumstances beyond our control'. It was also not really possible for the removal contractor to say how long the move would take until cabinets were actually put on lorries and driven away. By the third day, however, the contractors had established a routine using one large lorry and two smaller ones which made seven to eight deliveries of drawers and cabinets a day. Each of the smaller vehicles could take six pallets (about 60 drawers), whilst the large one could take between 90 and 100 drawers. All vans carrying drawers of maps were accompanied by the security guards, whilst the empty cabinets, or 'carcasses' travelled separately. Indeed, the move proceeded so quickly and smoothy that at one stage we had to advise the contractor to slow down because carcasses and drawers were piling up at Micawber Street faster than the five or six men there could level and reassemble them. In the event, Novello House was emptied in three weeks, Sheraton House basement in two weeks. A further three weeks were needed to iron out problems with the heating and the telephones, and to install the racking. All three stores, however, were fully functioning a month ahead of schedule. In conclusion, I would stress that thorough planning of a move of this scale is essential, and that any plans must be flexible, easily understood and, above all, simple to operate. It is equally important to communicate your requirements and your expectations to all involved in the operation, as it is essential that everyone is aware of their exact responsibilities and the exact sequence of events. Finally, both operational staff and contractors should have ready access to a single individual whose clear responsibility is the supervision of the move as a whole, and who is in a position to resolve any unexpected problems as they arise.