Fact Sheet: Provincial Archives Storage Facility

A storage facility designed to house and preserve New Brunswick's documentary heritage. The storage facility consists of a repository and a cold storage vault.

The repository will increase the live of records five-fold, i.e. a record stored there having a life expectancy of 50 years, will have a life expectancy of 250 years.

Inside the Provincial Archives. (Large photo.)

Repository Specifications

Repository designed to house the more stable archival formats in a cool and dry environment. The types of materials housed include paper based records, photographic materials, architectural plans, maps, drawings, and magnetic media.

C Building size: about 920 sq. m. (10,000 sq feet)

C Storage Capacity: about 1,700 cubic metres (60,000 cubic feet)

C Storage furniture:

C High density fixed metal shelving

C Shelving height: about 9 metres (30 feet); 12 rows of shelving, 26 bays per row, up to 30 shelves per bay (shelves 156 ft. in length). Will hold about 30 km. of records

C One hundred (100) map cabinets for cartographic and oversize document storage. Largest case hold maps with dimensions of 58 " x 96"

C All archival records housed in suitable enclosures prior to storage that hold records firmly upright and protect from light and damage during handling

C Environmental specifications: Temperature and humidity maintained year round at 10ºC (50ºF) and 30% relative humidity

C High efficiency filters and scrubbers remove damaging pollutants from air

Cold Storage Vault Specifications

Cold storage vault designed to house chemically unstable materials such as acetate based microfilm and motion picture films. Low temperature storage greatly reduces the rate of deterioration for unstable materials.

C Building size: 81 sq. m. (875 sq. ft.)

C Storage capacity: 120 cubic metres (4,270 cu. ft.)

C Storage furniture:

C High density mobile compact shelving units (6 rows 3'x 28'; 7 shelves per row)

C Three fixed shelves along outer walls (about 1.5' x 28' with 7 shelves)

C Archival records housed in suitable enclosures prior to storage

C Environmental Specifications: Temperature and humidity maintained year round at -2ºC (28ºF) and 30% relative humidity

Structural Features

$ Building materials that are durable, and chemically stable to minimize the introduction of harmful or volatile elements into the storage environment.

$ Reinforced concrete walls, floor and ceiling designed for strength, to aid in stabilizing the internal environment, and for fire protection properties.

$ Seamless vapour barrier applied to help control internal environment.

$ Air handling systems to ensure air quality standards, and to maintain and control temperature and humidity levels within the repository and cold storage vault.

$ Very early warning fire detection (VESDA) and full sprinkler fire suppression systems to mitigate fire risks due to value of holdings.

$ High-density fixed and mobile shelving units to maximize storage space.

Scope of Archival Holdings of Provincial Archives

C 9,500 metres of government textural records
C 3,000 private textural collections
C 215,000 photographic images
C 50,000 rolls of microfilm (microfilmed documents 75,000,000)
C 290,000 architectural drawings
C 56,000 maps and survey plans
C 8,700 hours of sound recording
C 740 hours of video recording
C 80,000 hours of film footage
C Textural records 50,000,000
C Sound recordings 10,385
C Film 10,840
C Video recordings 5000 cassettes

03/09/26

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