> Our small Historical Soc. needs to build a vault for our documents, > etc. and for the Town's records. Could any of you direct us to sources > for architectural plans? > Any ideas, thoughts, 'definitely don't do's ' , etc. would also be helpful. > We are a small town (approx 800 ) in coastal Maine. I know that we > can spend many thousands of $ for such a vault. Our society doesn't > have a large budget and no endowments as yet. We were formed in 2000 > and so are just beginning. Our goal has been to begin carefully and > slowly and do things as correctly as possible from the start. > The possibilities for grants are something we need to explore also, > if anyone has ideas on that. Joyce, a good vault must be all of the following: 1. Fireproof, i.e., not made of wood. 2. Dark and windowless. 3. On a middle floor. 4. Temperature controlled, always less than 68 degrees F. 5. Humidity controlled, always about 45% RH. 6. Positive-pressured and filtered through a closed system HVAC, to prevent dust buildup. I hope this helps! Eric Eric v.d. Luft, Ph.D., M.L.S. Curator of Historical Collections, Health Sciences Library Lecturer, Center for Bioethics and Humanities SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY 13210 <http://www.upstate.edu/library/history/> -- 315-464-4585 Owner, Gegensatz Press <http://www.gegensatzpress.com/> A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List sponsored by the Society of American Archivists, www.archivists.org. For the terms of participation, please refer to http://www.archivists.org/listservs/arch_listserv_terms.asp. To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to [log in to unmask] In body of message: SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname *or*: UNSUB ARCHIVES To post a message, send e-mail to [log in to unmask] Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html Problems? Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <[log in to unmask]>