To address this problem, System Store Solutions offers a comprehensive family of Secure Open Storage products, all of which have been designed with museum applications specifically in mind.

These products are already helping to organise, protect and display artefacts at prestigious museums throughout the UK, including mima (Middlesborough Museum of Modern Art), Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, and RAF Manston Spitfire and Hurricane Museum.
The extensive storage installation at mima incorporates shelving with sliding doors, open shelving for large book-form solander boxes, long span shelving for curatorial materials and plan filing cabinets with drawing boards for the storage and viewing of large flat paper items. With typical attention to detail, System Store Solutions has designed the drawing boards so that they can be easily adjusted to allow artwork to be viewed at the optimum angle.

For the secure storage of jewellery, the company has provided mima with large drawer cabinets that have individually lockable drawers. Each of the drawers accommodates two folded steel trays that make it easy to remove the jewellery rapidly in an emergency.

These storage units are complemented by art handling trolleys, trolleys for large items, cantilever racking for general storage and pigeon-hole shelving for small works of art.

Julia Palmer, mima Manager, is delighted with the museums new storage systems. “System Store Solutions met and exceeded all of our requirements for optimal use of space, flexibility of storage, product quality and deliverability within a tight timescale,” she said. “In addition, the cost of the systems was very competitive, and the company provided an efficient, professional and friendly service throughout the whole design and installation process.”

At mima, the Secure Open Storage products supplied are now protecting some of the museum’s most prestigious collections, including its renowned British Ceramic Art collection.For Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, System Store Solutions has supplied a controlled access drawer unit with individual electronic locking facilities for each drawer. The drawers can only be opened using a swipe card. According to Deborah Cane, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery’s Collections Care Officer, this arrangement has allowed the museum to bring together the whole of the museum’s jewellery collection in a single location.

“As each drawer has its own swipe card, we can selectively allow or restrict access to the collection, thereby improving security,” she said. “If a researcher wants, say, to examine rings, they are issued with a swipe card for the ring drawer only – the other eleven drawers remain secure.”

The new jewellery storage arrangements at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery also make it easier to view the collection, as similar types of jewellery are grouped together in the drawers. This means, for example, that someone who wants to view all of the brooches to select some for an exhibition now only has to open a single drawer. Previously they would have had to examine the contents of five drawers in two different locations.

To further enhance security, the jewellery storage system is also fitted with an audible alarm to indicate that a drawer has been left open. This guards against researchers forgetting to close drawers but can be disabled with the aid of the appropriate swipe card by those who may need to work for extended periods with drawers open.

Situated on the site of one of the very few surviving airfields that played an important part in the Battle of Britain, the RAF Manston Spitfire and Hurricane Memorial Museum houses artefacts that range from complete aircrafts to photographs, newspaper cuttings, letters and other memorabilia. To house and protect many of the small fragile items in its collection, including in particular the paper items, the museum has just taken delivery of a lockable drawer unit with a glass topped display case.

“When we approached the company with details of our requirements, System Store Solutions was very supportive in helping us to choose the best product for our needs,” said the museum’s Peter Verdemato, “and the prices quoted were also very competitive. While we haven’t as yet had time to make use of the new storage system, our first impressions are very favourable – it looks good, its versatile and it’s exceptionally well made.”

Museums of different types make widely varying demands on their Secure Open Storage systems. Whatever their requirements, however, System Store Solutions can, with its extensive product range and in-depth experience of museum applications, provide a solution that combines efficiency and effectiveness with durability and value for money.