CDNLAO Newsletter
No. 76, March 2013
Since late last year, the National Library of New Zealand, in Wellington, has again been able to offer its users a full range of services, and staff have returned to their newly refurbished building after more than two years in temporary accommodation.
The refurbishment of the building has created a new, vibrant library for the 21st century with better access for the general public, better facilities for researchers, and better storage conditions for the collections.
< Staff member Fiona Gray assisting a reader in the new Reading Room of the Alexander Turnbull Library
(the heritage division of the National Library) >
Why refurbish?
The need to refurbish the building was identified in 2007 when a fundamental review was initiated, looking at how the library’s funding baseline was prioritised, its productivity and its capacity and capability for change. The review was followed by a strategic plan which highlighted the need to modernise both the facilities and the services being offered.
In 2008 an integrated implementation programme was established charged with repositioning and modernising the National Library.
Problems which needed to be addressed included:
- the aging plant and infrastructure;
- the poor accessibility of the collections was limiting the impact they could have on New Zealand’s cultural, social and economic development;
- storage space was nearing capacity
- the need to improve physical access to the building
The implementation programme aimed to address these issues and to enable the library to deliver new and better services, to improve the library’s infrastructure to make it safer and more secure, to increase the storage capacity, to support a stronger digital access platform, and to enable a transformation of staff capability and organisational culture to sustain the delivery of new services.
The project scope
The National Library’s main building was designed in the 1970s and built in the 1980s. The project to refurbish it included an interior refurbishment, extensive new shelving, the replacement of aging plant and a new roof.
The building has six levels and total floor area of 23,400 sq m. The budget for the project was $NZ65 million.
A structural review and seismic analysis established that the building itself was robust, well designed to modern principles and met current code requirements.
The main problem to address was the storage space issue. Options considered included: adding to the existing building, moving some of the collections off site, or increasing the efficiency of the existing space. The last option was the one chosen.
Another key issue was increasing the number of climate-controlled storage areas.
The building’s roof had been compromised by age, so requiring the installation of a new one. This had to be achieved with close to 80% of the collections still on site.
< New book-stacks being installed >
Managing the collections during the project
The large scope of the upgrade project meant it was preferable to relocate as many of the library operations as possible. This meant moving staff, operations and some high-use collections to four temporary locations elsewhere in the city centre. However, for practical reasons, over 80% of the collections were left in the building or moved to off-site storage where they remained inaccessible for the duration of the project.
The Library’s user community was consulted on the plans for temporary relocation of the collections and for interim access.
Careful and extensive planning went into packing up the collections, with the Library’s curators and conservation staff keeping a close eye on proceedings:
- Over the course of a year 6,700 fragile, damaged and rare books, sketch books, photo albums and manuscripts were boxed up for the move.
- In addition 7,000 bound and unbound newspapers were custom wrapped and boxed with some being wrapped in corflute™ (protective plastic sheeting) and shrink wrapped in plastic.
- Because of their fragility, the photographic glass negative collection and the AV cassette and CD collections were moved with great care after a lengthy planning exercise.
- The plan cabinets were rationalised and sheets of corflute were placed on top of and under the drawer contents to prevent folders moving and to protect the contents from construction dust or metal particles.
In all, around 15,000 hours and 18 months were devoted to preparing the collections for storage or moving.
There were some side benefits from the activity: some of the precautions taken for fragile and rare items are now providing permanent added protection in their new storage environments.
Security procedures
The project contractors created a temporary steel and plywood roof system under which they could work to remove the old roof and lay a waterproof membrane over the concrete slab covering the top level of the building before beginning to construct the new roof. This was achieved with no damage and no significant incidents.
Special care was devoted to the items remaining on site during the construction. They were consolidated and moved to two floors (the ground and basement levels). Special shelving was erected on these floors to accommodate them, floor coverings were removed and air conditioning isolated to create better storage conditions.
In addition, special security arrangements were made to ensure the safety of the collections. However, the collections stored in the basement were kept accessible (to staff) which created additional challenges.
To ensure the on-going safety of the collections, a Collection Protection Plan and Framework was established which included the Library and the main on-site contractor establishing dedicated collection protection roles. Robust work procedures were agreed on before construction work was carried out. Method plans and work plans were agreed in advance, and a full risk assessment was done.
The whole process was overseen by an independent external conservator appointed as a consultant to provide stakeholders (including the Government, the public, and the Library’s own staff) with high-level assurance of the security of the collections.
A collections specialist from the National Library also trained and worked with all the contractors, explaining the issues, and reviewing work plans and methods.
The contractors had to ensure that there were no leakages from exposed membrane or water pipes, and that no dust (particularly concrete dust) reached the stored collections. There also had to be extremely rigorous processes for managing ‘hot’ work as it was absolutely imperative to exclude any risk of fire.
The main contractor used water and dust vacuums, and where possible tools were fitted with vacuums to remove dust at source. Temporary walls were built and sealed between work sites and collection areas, and negative pressurisation ensured that dust was contained or removed via extraction systems. There were no dust migration issues at all.
< Workers pouring the new concrete roof of the National Library of New Zealand >
< The exterior of the main building of the National Library of New Zealand, and the main entrance on Molesworth Street, Wellington. >
The result
The new facilities and services are in full operation. A greater proportion of the collections is now available online, and there is a range of platforms and tools to encourage New Zealanders to engage with the collections and to create and generate content and knowledge in the digital environment.
The building itself is now watertight, with the new roof providing security and safety for the collections housed inside. In addition, 100% of the heritage collections are now stored in appropriate, climate-controlled spaces, with environments ranging from 2+/-2 deg C and 30+/-5% RH through 18+/-2 deg C and 48+/-5% RH.
< Project Leader Pamela Harris inspects the new map drawers in the refurbished National Library of New Zealand >
The reorganisation and intensification of the storage areas, coupled with the consolidation of the staff work areas and public service points, has created the equivalent of 3000m2 of storage space ensuring adequate space for the growth of collections for up to 20 years more.
The ground floor now houses a public café, exhibition spaces and special educational areas for the public, including technologies to aid digital access to the collections and to the knowledge they contain. There is a digital ‘touch table’ and a number of AV pods which allow the public to explore and interact with the collections digitally.
And alongside the physical changes the new website offers access to the collections for a wider audience, including those unable to travel to the capital to use their National Library.
The Library is now a hub for a whole world of digital knowledge. The key to the success of the project was the close collaboration between the Library’s staff and the contractors, based on the assembly of a team with the right people with the right skills, and meticulous planning.
Copyright (C) 2013 National Library of New Zealand
