Britain: Manchester’s Central Library Moving Many Books to Deep Underground Salt Mines
February 26th, 2010Is the seed vault full?
Via: Manchester Evening News:
ONE million books from Manchester’s Central Library – including valuable volumes dating back to the 15th century – are to be put into temporarily storage with many going deep underground in the Cheshire salt mines.
Works from the city’s reference library will be stored in the mines, hundreds of feet below ground, for the next three years while the landmark city centre site undergoes a massive refurbishment to save it from ruin.
Experts say the mine’s caverns – the size of 700 football pitches – provide the perfect environment for preserving the manuscripts, which include the works of eminent academics.
A phased shut down of the St Peter’s Square library will begin next month, with the site closing its doors in June. The Library Theatre, which will most likely relocate to the historic Theatre Royal, will close the following month with a celebratory show entitled Last Night at the Library.
A temporary city library will open in Elliot House, on Deansgate, where staff will also be able to arrange access to some rare reference works that are not available elsewhere in the country. All others will be stored in the salt mines from where they will be digitally catalogued but inaccessible for the duration of the refurbishment.
More than 22 miles of shelving and one million books – including more than 30 works dating back to the 15th century and 44,000 published before 1850 – will be relocated to the mines, Elliot House and other temporary locations including the Royal Northern College of Music. The project is part of multi-million pound plans to transform and modernise St Peter’s Square and the Town Hall Complex, bringing services and facilities up to date and carrying out vital restoration works to the listed buildings.
Central Library will re-open in 2013 with a new state-of-the-art lending library, electronic catalogue and archive centre, to bring historic local collections under one roof. A one-stop customer services centre will also be created on the ground floor of the town hall extension.
From April, some 1,800 council staff will be moved to First Street, at the city centre’s southern gateway, for four years while restoration work takes place. A temporary customer services point will open to the public there in early summer.
The Library Theatre Company will temporarily be based at Zion Arts, on Stretford Road, and stage regular performances at The Lowry.
Coun Mike Amesbury, Manchester’s spokesman for culture and leisure, said: “We recognise that Manchester’s Central Library is one of the finest buildings in the city and one of the finest libraries in the country. This refurbishment and restoration is absolutely necessary to ensure that the Library can continue to be a jewel in Manchester’s crown.”
Head of library services, Neil MacInnes, added: “When Central Library reopens, it will be a real world class facility that Manchester can rightly be proud of, completely in keeping with its history and heritage.”
Members of Central Library can also use all other libraries in Manchester.
“what we don’t know keeps the contracts
alive and moving
they don’t gotta burn tha books they just remove em”
– RATM Bulls on parade
Could this be additional prepping for some event in 2012? The seeds are safe and now we’ll preserve at least some of our culture underground if some surface event were to happen in 2012? I don’t really buy into the whole Mayan thing but perhaps someone in charge does?
I think this one is just what it looks like – temporary homes during a rebuild. Only some books and MSS are going underground, lots are going to locations above ground.