Our Storage Area at Townsweb Archiving

How We Look After Your Archives During Digitisation

At TownsWeb Archiving, we understand how important your material is. We follow careful procedures to make sure that your material is safe and treated with respect. Once a new project has arrived, we make space on a shelf that’s dedicated to your archive.

Each project is labelled in our storage room, and we use codes for each area (e.g., 1: 1a, 1b, 1c) to ensure nothing gets misplaced. This is particularly important for deliveries.

Secure, Climate-Controlled Storage

The storage area is locked, monitored, and climate-controlled to protect against temperature swings, humidity, and other environmental risks that can damage delicate items. We have a set temperature of 18 degrees Celsius in our studio as well as in the storage room to ensure there is no damage when storing or handling your material.

Our storage room sits right next to our digitisation studio, which means our technicians have quick and direct access to your materials. We also have a doorstop for larger items or when no other technicians are available to help. This ensures your material is handled safely, with no risk of items being dropped or damaged.

At the end of each working day, we place your material back into our storage room, so there is no overnight exposure or cluttered workspace. Here at TownsWeb, we like to maintain a calm and controlled environment.

Designed for Every Format

We know that not all collections are the same, and many items may have torn pages, fragile bindings, or simply be in poor condition. For particularly fragile items, we take extra precautions when placing them in the storage room, ensuring that nothing is placed on top of the material and that it is not positioned awkwardly on the shelf.

If your archive includes a fragile book that is already starting to come apart, we will place it in its own protected space, away from anything that could cause further damage. We also accept and care for large drawings and plans, which are carefully laid out on our flat surveying table to avoid creasing and unnecessary folds.

We take the time to understand the condition of each item and store it in a way that supports long-term preservation. We make sure to look after your material from the moment it arrives, throughout the digitisation process, and until it is safely returned to you.

Handled with Care, Every Step of the Way

Whether it’s a heavy box, extremely fragile book or a single delicate glass plate negative, our team handles every item with precision and care. We as technicians follow strict handling procedures and are trained to work with sensitive, fragile materials.

When required, we use non-invasive archival gloves to handle and digitise materials such as glass plates. We always aim to keep handling to a minimum with this type of material, but wearing gloves ensures that no fingerprints are left on the surface.

We treat all archives as if they were our own, making sure every item is handled with care and respect

Preserving the past starts with protection.

From arrival to return, your collection is in safe hands with us. Want to know more about how we store and digitise your materials?

Get in touch - we’re happy to talk through the process and answer any questions you have.