[NHCOLL-L:4078] RE: open shelves in collection

[Shirley Albright]

Mariko,

 

I think I would stay away from wood or plastic or rope.  Rope can
stretch.  Plastic can deteriorate  You didn't say what your shelf is
made of, but I'm assuming it's metal.

 

I would take a look at metal angle iron or L-channel metal strips.
These come in a variety of metals, lengths, and either with/without
predrilled holes for screws.   The ones you get from Home Depot are
galvanized steel, but if you go online, you can get other metals -
aluminum etc.

 

If you have to cut a customized length, mark the desired length with a
grease pen and then cut with an abrasive cutting wheel, chop saw or hack
saw (this option takes more time but it can be done).  If you don't have
a metal worker handy, try your local high school or tech school.

 

If you epoxy this strip to the shelf, it won't come off...but you've
lost your flexibility also for using that shelf for other things.   If
you screw it on, you can always remove the 'lip' if you use the unit for
something other than fluid-preserved collections.

 

If you want to get 'fancy' you can install a 'bumper' on the lip that
will provide some cushioning if a glass jar does come into contact with
it.

 

If you're in an earthquake zone, you might want a lip that is more
substantial than 1-2 inches.   When you're setting your shelves, make
sure you leave enough head room between the jar top and the shelf above
it so you can lift the jar vertically and remove it.   You don't want to
be tilting the jar to get it over the lip.

 

That's my two cents.   Hope it helps.

 

Shirley S. Albright

Manager, Technology and Museum Information Systems

 

New Jersey State Museum

240 W. State St., 14th floor

PO Box 530

Trenton, NJ  08625-0530

(office)  609.292.6331

(fax)      609.292.7636 

________________________________

From: owner-nhcoll-l at lists.yale.edu
[mailto:owner-nhcoll-l at lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Mariko Kageyama
Sent: Wednesday, November 12, 2008 9:55 AM
To: NHCOLL-L at lists.yale.edu
Subject: [NHCOLL-L:4077] open shelves in collection

 

Hello,

The fire and life safety staff on our university campus recently
inspected our fluid-preserved zoological (both vertebrate and
invertebrate) collection facility. They looked at the open shelving in
particular, and said that the fire code requires that our current
shelves be provided a lip or guard to prevent containers from being
displaced. According to their advice, the lip may be made of hard
plastic, sheet metal or wood strips, rope, etc. as long as the lip will
prevent specimen glass containers from falling without potentially
breaking the containers or make it difficult to remove or place
containers on the shelves. They recommended a simple solution to this
matter might be to attach a metal strip to the front edge of each shelf
with permanent and strong adhesive or bolts. If you have any experience
or suggestions in modifying the existing open shelf storage system for
wet collections to comply with the local and campus fire code, we would
appreciate your advice. Especially we would like to know the pros and
cons of different solutions and materials being used to meet such
purposes.

Thanks,

Mariko



Mariko Kageyama
Zoology Collections Manager
University of Colorado Museum of Natural History
265 UCB
Boulder, Colorado 80309-0265
303-492-0160

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/private/nhcoll-l/attachments/20081112/2872183f/attachment.html