Architectural collections

With construction on a new Library off-site storage facility here at
Syracuse University slowly getting underway we have begun to look
reexamine all past practices. The architectural collections here at
Syracuse are significant in both those represented and the physical
size of the collections: among them are William Lescaze (65 linear
feet); Marcel Breuer (130 linear feet and 616 units of plans); and
Pietro Belluschi (453 linear feet and 877 units of plans).

Collections are 20th century and consist large of plans/working
drawings on a variety of support media. All are considered part of
the "papers" in the organizational sense.

My questions are relating to the plans:

How are others with similar collections storing them?

How do you make your storage decisions for these kinds of materials?

How do you transport these oversized materials from storage to
reading room?

If your collections are stored offsite how do you transport to
reading room (any special arrangements)?

How heavily used are these collections?

If you could do things differently, what would you do?

I have and have consulted Architectural Photoreproductions
(Kissel/Vigneau), Architectural Records (Lowell/Nelb), and Line
Shade Shadow (Olcott Price).

Thank you for your input,

Peter D. Verheyen
Head of Preservation and Conservation
Syracuse University Library
Syracuse, NY 13244
315-443-9756


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