Managing Flat File Storage Requires a Case Study
For that manager in the Building Records unit at a major west coast public University, the document storage problems were critical. The condition wasn’t justifying budget for more room. There is no longer space to be enjoyed.
The Facilities Management Department must preserve whilst accessible in excess of 40,000 original plans and drawings. Lots of the documents date from the University’s founding and were hand drawn by Architects and Engineers gone. These include architectural, structural, civil, mechanical, plumbing, electrical as well as other drawings for site development, infrastructure, landscape, utilities, buildings, additions and renovations.
The 3,300-cubic-foot room holding the essentially irreplaceable documents was crammed seven feet high with flat files whose in excess of 150 drawers were filled up with originals. Clamped “sacrificials”—copies familiar with protect originals—come in an additional room. Large E-size drawings were one of the most tricky to store and retrieve. Ever since the drawers had uses up space plus the University was adding buildings and completing renovation projects, rolls of drawings were stacked everywhere.
The minimum files right on the floor; bending and lifting risked minor injuries. Leaving bottom drawers open presented a tripping hazard. Top drawers were stacked really at high point that staff cannot see into them without stools or short ladders. And also the aging drawers required frequent repairs.
The manager said: “Our filing structure had evolved as time passes together no rhyme or reason,” so documents were susceptible to misfiling you aren’t being filed. Even so the manager’s biggest concern was document longevity. “Every by using an original abrades its clarity,” he indicates. “Even sitting unused, drawings lying flat in the drawings rub one another when a truck shakes the dwelling.”
Electronic Storage Costly and Uncertain:
The manager was unconvinced about fully electronic storage. “Nobody’s about to provide more than $4 million to convert these documents to AutoCAD at $100 apiece,” he observes. “And also you can’t predict which documents can be in cheaper graphics files versus those that must be in AutoCAD because you’ll someday must manipulate them.”
“No electronic medium can be as permanent and accessible to be a document. Today, you can’t play your old 8-track audiotapes. In a few years, you won’t find VCRs. And I’ve seen my CDs and DVDs wear. Every 10 years, a different storage method is going to take over, so you’ll migrate your documents several times in your career. Each conversion is expensive and paves the way to losing files or corrupted data.
“Properly stored, high-quality ink on Mylar features a functionally unlimited lifespan,” he points out. “Yet they’re subject to abrasion, misfiling, fire, and water. You may need physical safety for ones documents and electronic storage.”
“A whole new physical storage system had to let’s grow, protect these documents superior, and provide may filing structure,” says the manager. In 17 years with other units inside the University, he’s developed cost-based strategies to justifying projects. “We selected a vertical file storage system since it met our criteria cheaply. It turned out all to easy to assist, conversion was do-able, and yes it would eliminate injury dangers. Transitioning to a new filing system also provided the opportunity to implement may numbering system which the staff received but hadn’t yet implemented”.
“We calculated that vertical file storage systems were three times more cost-effective than flat files,” says the manager. “We save space, our drawings hang without touching, finding documents is intuitive, and re-filing is not difficult so that it gets done more reguarily.”
The University projects faster document retrievals during renovation projects and also throughout an emergency. “Over-sized drawings were a problem,” the University manager says, “these days we maintain them in vertical file storage systems. One pleasant surprise was that, even fully loaded, staff can easily push the cupboards around around the carpeted floor, enabling fast cabinet rearrangement as needs change”.
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