Document Storage

Document Storage can refer to storage of documents of any size and quantity, and in different formats.  There may be legal reasons why a company decides to store documents – for example all financial records should be kept for several years (although this does not necessarily have to be in physical form – scanned images are accepted). 

From a single book to dozens of archive boxes, the storage method should be appropriately suitable in order to main the integrity of the document.  No storage method should cause the document to deteriorate or to be damaged.  The storage method should include suitable labelling to aid retrieval of documents.  The storage method should allow documents to be removed safely and without disruption to other documents in the same area. 

For small documents, or small quantities of documents, a small shelving unit should be suitable.  As storage needs of a company increase, slot- and/or bolt-together racking is available, with a typical single rack having dimensions of 2m long by 2.5m high by 0.4m deep and containing 3 shelves.  Such a rack would be capable of holding 25 standard archive boxes, and all shelves would be accessible from floor-level without the need for steps.  Beyond this, warehouse-type racking of a very industrial nature is available, although the capacity for installing racking depends on the building space.  Each document or box stored in the racking should be clearly identified, and be easily retrieved. A storage register may be desirable, which would indicate which box and storage location a particular document is stored in.  It would also allow movements of documents to be recorded, for example for destruction, or return to customer. 

For very large quantities of documents & boxes to be stored, it may be necessary to use off-site storage.  This can take the form of self-storage, where the customer takes care of all transport, storage and tracking, or specialist storage company.  Specialist storage companies will collect the boxes from the customer’s door, transport them to their own large warehouses and store them in (typically) low humidity and low fire-risk locations.  They would also allocate barcodes to each box, so that they can easily retrieve the customer’s documents upon request.

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