At the end of last year, Archive-IT began renovating an unused space. This space has now been transformed into a fully climate-controlled storage area for archive materials – also known as an archive room. However, a space may only officially be called an "archive room" if it complies with the requirements set out in the Archives Act. We’ll explain how that works!
The Archives Act
The Archives Act is the key piece of legislation in the Netherlands governing information management. The Archives Act of 1995 regulates the maintenance and accessibility of government archives. It sets out how long government documents must be preserved, and includes provisions on the care and access to records, lending and transfer regulations, public access to information, and the eventual transfer of documents to a repository. According to the Archives Act, every government institution must have both an archive room and an archive repository at its disposal. This applies to both analogue and digital information.
Archive Room vs Archive Repository – Similarities and Differences
You might be wondering: what is the difference between an archive room and an archive repository? In practice, they have more similarities than differences. Both can be used for analogue and digital storage. For analogue documents, however, different physical requirements apply. The standards for an archive repository are more stringent than those for an archive room. This is because documents that need to be preserved for more than 20 years are eventually stored in a repository – after having first been kept in an archive room.
The building where the archive room is located must not be exposed to significant environmental risks, such as heavy air pollution, fire hazards or flood risk. Both types of spaces must be fitted with fire and water detection systems.
A crucial requirement for both is the climate control. One of the most important aspects is temperature, which must be kept between 16°C and 20°C, with a maximum of ten consecutive days per year where it may rise to 25°C. Humidity must also be carefully controlled – it should remain between 30% and 55%. These environmental conditions must be continuously monitored, and the monitoring equipment must be located outside the storage space itself.
The rooms must be windowless and constructed from high-quality concrete. Both archive rooms and repositories must comply with the same floor load capacity: 10 kN/m², calculated for installations with 7 shelves stacked vertically, spaced 35 cm apart. There are also regulations on separation from other rooms: archive rooms must be enclosed with stone material that provides a minimum fire resistance of 60 minutes in accordance with NEN6096. Fire dampers must be certified according to NEN6077, and the rooms must not contain grilles or intermediate floors.
Archive Room at Archive-IT
The reason Archive-IT decided to build this new archive room is the increasing demand from municipalities and government bodies for safe long-term archive storage. In many cases, these archives must be stored for extended periods—sometimes indefinitely. Municipalities are increasingly facing space shortages, or their own archive facilities no longer meet legal standards. By storing their archives at Archive-IT in a fully equipped space that complies with the Archives Act, municipalities can bridge the 20-year period before materials must be transferred to a repository. Efficient and accessible!
Additionally, we’re seeing growing demand from municipalities undergoing mergers. Ideally, archives from merged municipalities are consolidated and made accessible from one central location to all authorised users within the new organisation. Unfortunately, many existing municipal archive spaces lack the capacity for this. Archive-IT offers the ideal solution.
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