Earl, all good advice so far. I was recently involved in a move of a
major county office building to smaller quarters, as well as our Records
Center. Most folks have given you good advice on the office side -
here's some seemingly obvious advice regarding the Records Center - so
obvious it could get ignored:
- Make sure the movers understand the need for precision on moving
Records Center content. Our mover walked in expecting to move the boxes
to "areas" at which point we would "relocate". No - if the items start
from a specific location, they need to end in a specific location. We
developed data conversions and labeling schemes that mapped old to new
locations.
- Work closely with the mover regarding materiel flow - designed to
start with most accessible at the start location working progressively
to least accessible (which becomes more accessible as the move
progresses). You probably won't be able to replicate your old locator
system at the new location - I wouldn't even try.
- I was dealing with Records Center shelving - each section was stacked
individually on pallets (rather than fill each pallet) - this greatly
facilitated off loading and re-shelving.
- We were able to maintain inactive records access throughout the
process. We halted accessioning and destruction while the process was
being carried out.
- Pay attention to earthquake standards if you are relocating older
shelving, and installing new. The requirements may be different for
construction and securing for old and new (one of the mysteries of
building permitting). Parts are still available for upgrades to most
types of shelving. Beware however - we discovered some of our platforms
were a quarter inch larger than others, which lead to some problems in
reconstruction.
- We got red-lined at one point, halting construction; had to deal with
one of the worst series of snow storms in recent memory; had to do a
major modification due to the discovery of leaks from said snow storms;
etc.. etc... Still managed to get it done with minimal service
disruptions (we restarted accessioning during the delays)and reasonably
within budget. Murphy's Law is eternal - have fun!

Dwight Wallis, CRM
Records Administrator
Multnomah County Fleet, Records, Electronics, Distribution and Stores
(FREDS)
1620 S.E. 190th Avenue
Portland, OR 97233
Phone: (503)988-3741
Fax: (503)988-3754
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