Libraries / Archives

Controlled Environments for Libraries / Archives. For universities, research institutions, libraries, historians, and others, having controlled environments for books, letters, film, and other artifacts is paramount to securing and protecting historical information. Darwin Chambers is here to design, install, and maintain environmental rooms and reach-in chambers that allow you to keep your materials secure and intact.

For more than 20 years, our team has found environmental control solutions for a number of industries. For archives and other collections, this includes humidity-controlled chambers, cold rooms, archival storage, and more. Reach out to our team now online for a free quote or call us directly at (314) 534-3111 for more information and library and archival storage.

Archival Rooms for Archives and Libraries

  • Archival Storage Rooms: These specialized rooms are essential for libraries, archivists, museums, and universities to store rare and valuable materials. Items such as books, manuscripts, wooden objects, metals, textiles, and photographs can be highly sensitive to environmental factors like light, heat, pollutants, and moisture. By maintaining controlled temperatures, humidity, and air quality, archival storage rooms help prevent degradation, mold growth, and oxidation, ensuring the long-term preservation of these artifacts. Archival rooms are critical for protecting the cultural and historical value of these materials, which may have academic, research, or monetary significance.

Archival Storage Chambers for Libraries and Archives

  • Archival Storage Reach-In Chambers: These reach-in chambers are easy to maintain and calibrate, offering precise control over temperature, humidity, and light exposure. They are ideal for storing sensitive materials like photographs, manuscripts, and textiles, which require individualized environmental conditions. With their compact design and accessibility, reach-in chambers are perfect for organizations with limited space, ensuring that rare and valuable items are protected from pollutants, mold, and physical degradation over time.

Transportable Environmental Rooms for Archives and Libraries

Portable and adaptable, transportable environment rooms help archivists and libraries store delicate documents and materials under optimal conditions. These solutions are perfect for institutions requiring flexibility due to space constraints, exhibition preparation, temporary relocation, or the need for additional preservation capacity.

  • Transportable Archival Storage Rooms: Our secure transportable chambers are a versatile option for expanding storage capacity, safeguarding collections during moves, or providing temporary controlled environments during renovations. These chambers are equipped with precise controls for temperature, humidity, and lighting, ensuring that materials like manuscripts, rare books, and photographs are protected from environmental threats such as pests, mold, water damage, fire, and light exposure.
  • Emergency Solutions for Archival Storage: In the event of natural disasters or emergencies, transportable environmental rooms can be deployed quickly to prevent further damage to collections by providing protection against fluctuating environmental conditions.

Cold Rooms and Freezers for Archives and Library Storage

  • Cold Rooms and Freezers: Cold rooms are often used for storing films, photographs, magnetic media (hard drives), and other sensitive material. Cold rooms and walk-in freezers with precise temperature and humidity control are essential for slowing the rate of degradation caused by environmental factors like oxidation and microbial growth. Whether for long-term storage or short-term cooling needs, these controlled rooms are equipped with advanced monitoring systems, alarms, and backup power to ensure consistency and safeguard against unexpected temperature fluctuations. This makes archival cold room systems critical for preserving valuable collections.

Archival and Library Industry Requirements

  • ISO 11799k: Data storage and security is important for libraries and repositories that are used for long-term storage. This includes fire protection, temperature control, and other storage solutions to product documents other items.
  • ANSI/NISO Z39.79: ANSI/NISO Z39.79 is a standard focused on environmental conditions for exhibiting library and archival materials. It was developed by the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) and approved by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). The goal of the standard is to provide guidelines for controlling environmental factors—such as light, humidity, and temperature—when displaying sensitive materials like books, documents, and photographs. These environmental controls are critical in preventing degradation, fading, and other forms of damage over time.
  • NARA: The National Archives and Records Administration archives federal records, grants public access to information, and stores and preserves research. Organizations like this will often use environmental chamber testing when moving a large amount of documents and media to different locations with temperature, humidity, and other environmental factors that can damage any information.

Library and Archival Storage Solutions

There are many applications for cold rooms, walk-in chambers, and other environmental systems for archives and libraries. This includes:

  • Rare Book Rooms: Controlled environmental systems allow you to store old, precious and damaged book collections, manuscripts, and documents.
  • Paintings: Panel and canvas paintings are known to warp or crack in certain environments.
  • Photographic Negatives and Film: Special chambers ensure that film and negatives are stored at the correct temperature to prevent degradation or color shifting over time.
  • Maps and Blueprints: Large documents like maps and architectural blueprints need precise temperature control to avoid brittleness and fading.
  • Textile Preservation: Fabric-based artifacts, such as clothing or tapestries, can deteriorate if exposed to fluctuating environmental conditions. Stability chambers help maintain these delicate items.
  • Wooden Artifacts: Wood-based items, including sculptures and furniture, can warp or crack due to temperature fluctuations. Controlled environments help prevent this damage.
  • Metal Artifacts: Metal objects, such as coins or sculptures, are prone to corrosion if not stored properly. Archival storage prevents oxidation and other forms of decay.

Support and Maintenance for Library and Archival Environmental Rooms

We provide a variety of services designed to ensure the safe protection of books, artwork, and other materials. This includes:

  • Preventative Maintenance: Routine maintenance to ensure your storage chambers and rooms are fit to maintain controlled variables like temperature and humidity, and that your storage solution performs as intended.
  • Calibration Services: Equipment may need to be reconfigured based on various factors.
  • Qualification and Validation: There are quality control and validation services that require you to meet certain standards.
  • Installation Services: Our experts design and install environmental chambers to fit your needs to reach peak efficiency.

Controlled Environment Rooms and Reach-In Chambers for Libraries and Archives

Our team at Darwin Chambers helps institutions that include libraries, archives, universities, and governments store documents in controlled environments.

Contact our team online or give us a call at (314) 534-3111. You can view our online store and catalog to learn more about our products and controlled environment systems for archives and libraries.

Archival Storage Rooms

Archival Storage Rooms

Secure storage for books and other artifacts that are kept under precise conditions to prevent degradation.

Stability Freezers

Stability Freezers

Stability freezer and refrigerators that can keep your archival material safe and secure.

Archival Storage Chambers

Archival Storage Chambers

Archival reach-in chambers that allow you to secure and easily access important documents and materials.

Transportable Archival Storage Rooms

Transportable Archival Storage Rooms

Moveable chambers that can be placed on site to allow research, storage, and controlled environment solutions.

Cold Rooms

Cold Rooms

Cold rooms to preserve books, artifacts, and other precious material for research.

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