The shelves are anything but bare at the city archives, currently located within the Burnaby Public Library’s McGill branch.
In fact, city archivist Rebecca Pasch estimates the current digs could be completely full next year.
But Burnaby council isn’t willing to rush forward with a rescue plan just yet.
Pasch recently submitted a report to the community heritage commission and is asking council approve a plan to relocate and expand the city archives.
Mayor Derek Corrigan and city councillors decided to refer the issue to a city workshop.
“I’m not sure this is a business case,” Corrigan said of the report. “It’s a document that indicates a need as far as the archives is concerned.”
There are many issues to consider, including the need for the archives, the cost of the project and staffing, and also what files need saving, Corrigan added.
But it is also important to protect the city’s historical record, Coun. Pietro Calendino told his fellow councillors.
“I think we want to ensure we preserve the history of our community as much as we can,” Calendino said, referencing the destruction of historical artifacts in the Middle East.
While council plans to take a cautious approach, the city archivist has indicated the issue needs to be dealt with by next year.
“The need for expansion of the archives’ storage capacity is urgent,” Pasch wrote in the report. “Archives storage will be filled to capacity by 2016.”
City departments have transferred material to the archives since it opened at the McGill branch in 2001. The archives reached capacity in 2011 and added moveable storage at that time.
But the 75 per cent increase in storage space was only estimated to last five to seven years, Pasch wrote.
The city is implementing an electronic document and records management system next year, which means a backlog of physical files may be sent to the archives, she explained.
The current archives occupy 1,297 square feet. That would need to increase to 5,188 square feet with moveable storage if the archives are going to keep up with the amount of material expected over the next 11 years, Pasch wrote.
The archives will also need more staff to deal with the increase, as well as increased traffic from the Heritage Burnaby website, she added.
“It is a misconception that collections available online means less work for archives staff when in reality the reverse is true; that more work is created as more researchers are finding what they want/need and demanding digital copies,” Pasch wrote.
The city should plan for the expansion project next year and complete it in 2017, to handle the information overload, Pasch wrote.
She estimated the project would cost $1.8 million but added the city’s capital planning staff is better equipped to come up with a set budget.
