Artefacts are tangible objects that are created, used, kept and left behind by the ancient societies. Comprising artistic, historical, aesthetic, and/or spiritual values, these archaeological artefacts carry a wealth of information about the past generations that are bestowed for future generations. As a means of protecting these physical validations of our past, proper museum storage and archive center storage planning are required to downplay the risk of damaging precious artefacts. 

While the skill of museum curators determines how well artefacts are preserved, choosing the right museum storage cabinets is equally important.

Having worked with internationally recognised museum institutions, Fortisco delivers customizable museum storage solutions that are perfectly suited to enhance and protect your museum collection. We can customise these solutions to adhere to your organization’s best storage guidelines.

How To Choose The Right Museum Storage Systems?

1. Understand Your Museum Storage Needs

1. Go through your inventory. Understand what are the preservation requirements of different items in your collection, especially delicate items that may require special attention.
2. The choice of museum storage systems is also very much depending on the size and shape of the artefacts. You may want to consider ordering customized museum storage cabinets for some of the items.

2. Calculate the physical space available.

1. Pull out your building floor plan and find out how many square feet of available space you have.
2. Do you have any unused vertical space?
3. Understand how your staff work. Find out how much space is needed for workstations. 
4. Understand your organization’s expansion plan. Estimate how many new items will be added to the collections each year, and plan the available space accordingly.

3. Exhibition Requirements

1. Frontend and backend storage typically have different storage requirements.
2. How do you want to organize the artefacts to create the best experience for your patrons? 
3. If your organization is considering visibility storage, think about various ways that these collections can be displayed while stored in an optimal preservation environment.

Need help? Connect with our museum storage experts today. We provide a free consultation to help you discover storage options that are suitable for your organization.

Backend Museum Shelving and Archive Center Storage Solutions: 

Metal Drawer Cabinets For Small Artefacts

Small specimens, such as entomology artefacts, need to be securely concealed and preserved in a controlled environment. These specimens are often treated with chemicals to maintain their pristine condition for future scientific reference.

The chemicals necessitate that the storage cabinets for these artefacts be equipped with dividers in each drawer to accommodate and protect them. Hence, careful planning is essential to determine the optimal drawer configurations that will best preserve and secure these precious items.

Compactus® Shelving For Medium Sized Artefacts

Compactus® shelving system maximises storage space within the same footprint. This is because its interior is customisable to suit the height and size of the artefacts. Medium-sized artefacts, such as files, documents and sculptures, are best stored on these shelves as they provide high-density storage and are easily accessible.

At Fortisco, we provide excellent archive storage solutions which can be tailored to the exact requirements of the archived materials and repository space. 

To further prolong the lifetime of these stored items, you may keep them in acid-free boxes. This is beneficial as they can be custom made to fully utilize each shelving space. In addition, metal shelving is also preferred to wooden shelves as the acid contained in wood or paper can cause paper, photos and textiles to yellow, or worse, grow fungus. 

Long Span Shelving For Medium To Large Artefacts 

The long span shelving is a strong, flexible and economical shelving system. It is ideal to store a variety of items ranging from medium to large, heavy and bulky items. 

Long span shelving is modular. It incorporates a wide range of beams and frames, which makes it easy to configure to a variety of storage needs. It is easy to adjust shelf heights to easily fit artefacts to the shelving units.

You may want to invest in long span shelving system for flexible storage. 

Alternatively, for more compact storage, you may also opt to place large artefacts such as furniture and doors on the mobile base of our Compactus shelving system.

Our mechanical hand crank mobile shelving system is capable of moving heavy objects. It is able to support maximum block weight of 15, 25 and 35 tons.

Cantilever Racks For Extra Long Artefacts

We recommend investing in cantilever racks to store long items, such as aboriginal weapons and antique pillars. 

Long artefacts require specialised continuous shelving that has no frame in between that restricts the space. 

Therefore, cantilever racks that have long, uninterrupted bays between frames, are the ideal storage solution for long artefacts.

Frontend Museum Storage Systems: Display Solutions

Visible Storage Cabinets Enhance Visitor Experience

Unlike conventional exhibition that is less engaging, our visible museum storage cabinets emulate the new concept in Europe by storing artefacts in drawers that are covered with a glass on top. This allows visitors to view collections that are otherwise locked and hidden from public view.

This design triggers visitors’ curiosity as artefacts are kept in the drawers, waiting for the visitors to explore themselves. 

It also enriches the visitor’s experience as the act of pulling out drawers are very much similar to unboxing mystery treasure boxes.

Double Decker Compactus® Units Offer More Vertical Storage Space

While most museums only display 10 to 15 per cent of their overall collection, Fortisco’s innovative and modern museum storage concept allows artefacts to be properly stored and displayed at the same time. 

If your museum has high ceilings, you can consider installing double-decker high-density shelving systems to further increase your storage space.

Hanging Art Racks Allow Artwork To Be Individually Assessed

Among the various options, our wire mesh hanging storage stands out as a premier choice in artwork storage systems, perfectly suited for safeguarding fine art collections

Explore the variety of High-Density Art Rack Storage solutions provided by Fortisco Malaysia, meticulously crafted for art storage and the preservation of fine art in galleries and museums.

Upgrade Your Museum Storage with Fortisco’s Innovative Solutions

Our past is where our future is. Museums and archive center preserve the past and tell the story of each precious artefacts. To keep up with the browsing behaviour of modern patrons, most museums in Europe are leveraging creative space-saving solutions to allocate more floor space for community activities. Besides introducing the idea of visible storage, museums are also organizing more workshops or engaging sessions to create a more exciting and dynamic learning environment for visitors.

Having more space and better storage management is crucial to the success of museums and archive storage centers. If you need help to plan the best storage systems ideal for your museum, feel free to contact our team at Fortisco Malaysia or fill up the inquiry form for a detailed museum storage plan today.

Reference:

Western Australian Museum. (2017). Conservation and care of collections. Retrieved from https://manual.museum.wa.gov.au/conservation-and-care-collections-2017/