DeepStore – an answer to a gritty problem

A common question asked by many of our visitors is how do you look after all this material? It is certainly a challenge that requires thought, expertise, and care. With new collections being acquired by the library a major concern is storage. This is a sector-wide issue that we face alongside many other libraries, depositories, and heritage organisations. Would you be surprised to hear that the solution to our space problem lies 145 metres under the Cheshire countryside?

DeepStore is an underground storage facility, with the equivalent footprint of 700 football pitches. Salt mining was a huge industry in Cheshire from the mid-1800s with salt being excavated from deposits deep underground leaving vast underground spaces. Today, the mined rock salt is used for gritting icy roads in the winter. The UK’s largest and oldest mine is in Winsford, Cheshire and is where DeepStore was established in 1998 to store documents, archives, and historical collections.

Project DeepStore at the Rylands

We are currently undertaking a project to identify collections to move to DeepStore. We use a variety of criteria to make this assessment from how in demand the collection is, to its volume and condition. Once identified, collections then need to be assessed, recorded, barcoded and correctly packed for transport and storage which requires input from teams across Special Collections. With a constant temperature, RH 55%, no risk of UV damage, vermin or flooding DeepStore offers a functional extension to our onsite storage, meaning we can continue to expand our collections while maintaining access for teaching and research.

As our DeepStore provision grows we will be looking at streamlining the processes for ordering material for readers so that collection items can be called up, processed, and delivered promptly to the library. With the mine still extracting salt, the cavernous spaces are still growing so there is plenty of room for our collections alongside others such as Manchester’s Central Library, the National Archives, and the Royal Horticultural Society. And while we will have some empty shelves at the Rylands, rest assured those shelves will soon be filled with new and exciting collections- just watch this space!