Storing large books

We are now planning to move in our storage all the books of large
formats that have been housed in unacceptable condition until now.
The store will be new and we have to choose the bookshelves;
unluckily, due to space problems we have to look for the compact
style. We are very concerned about all the conservation problems
involved but still there is no way to change to normal bookshelves.

So how can we minimize the damage that could occur to such material
(the books are very heavy and *big*, from 60 to 120 centimeters
tall, two to four feet for the Americans)?

    Is there anyone that already faced the same situation ?

    Is there a way to store them horizontally without loosing too
    much space?

    Is there any firm that already studied a style of bookshelf that
    could suit us?

Alessandro Sidoti
Book conservator
National Library of Florence, Italy






                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 13:48
                  Distributed: Friday, March 24, 2000
                       Message Id: cdl-13-48-031
                                  ***