For many document types, scanning or imaging doesn't make dollars and cents sense.  Often, records can be stored in a traditional commercial records center for their entire useful life for approximately 1/10th of the cost to image them.  If records are no longer in use and need to be maintained for a relatively short time (5-10 years), standard archive records storage can be a great solution.

When storing records for compliance purposes, the records must be protected from pests, humidity and heat.  Inventory controls must be maintained and retention and destruction needs to be managed very carefully.  In order to meet these basic requirements, (without imaging) some choices need to be made.

 1. Where are the records going to be housed?

 2. How are going to control our records inventory?

 3. How are we going to manage records destruction?

 To get started, we'll just talk about picking a location for a business document archive.

Archive storage choices we see the most include self storage, shop space and of course office space.  Self storage is the most common.  It offers a fair amount of security.  Most self storage facilities are gated and have on site custodians that keep an eye out for trespassers.  Self storage units are also locked and access to the units can be controlled by the document manager by just being stingy with the key.  Self storage units are often one of the most economical ways to obtain space as well.  No other semi-secure space can be had in 80-100 square foot increments at such reasonable rates.

The drawbacks of storing records in self-storage are a little disturbing in my mind.  The chief of these is not knowing what is being stored in the unit next to yours.  The whole point in maintaing and keeping these documents is to protect your organization from liability, provide proof of transactions, etc.  If someone runs a meth lab out of the unit next to your records, your records could be burned, damaged or irreparably contaminated by harmful chemicals.  I have seen spills of gasoline; paint and petroleum products in neighboring units seep under walls and damage or destroy documents many times. 

Self storage units are also difficult to keep clean.  Dust, insects and moisture are constants in this environment.   This makes the self storage less than optimal for maintain viable archives.  The dust and moisture necessitate the use of shelving to get the records off of the ground to protect from ants, termites and water. 

The purchase of shelving and the transportation needed to haul records cartons to and from the storage unit further add to the inconvenience and expensive of this arrangement. 

So,

 Security, Not optimal

 Cost, check

 Protection from environment, Unsatisfactory

 Convenenience,  Not Optimal

 In the next post we'll discuss shop space as an archive facility.