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About Bruynzeel
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Highlights
Book tower, ghent
It was a major operation, the relocation of more than 3 million books and other heritage from the Ghent Book Tower, which was being renovated, to the new underground depot of the University Library of Ghent. Bruynzeel delivered and installed the new storage systems, with a total of 38 kilometers of bookshelves.
Optimal use of space
“We have been able to make optimal use of the available space and hardly an inch of the storage system’s space has remained unused. Thanks to a new logistics management system with barcodes, we can still find all materials quickly, although two matching books can be stored far apart due to their different format,” says Hendrik Defoort.
Bruynzeel has enormous experience with large projects such as this one. We benefited greatly from this throughout the entire process.
Hendrik Defoort, Collection manager of the Ghent University Library
Plenty of experience
Based on a European tender, Bruynzeel was hired to set up this library. “A good choice,” says collection manager Defoort. Bruynzeel calculated the optimal layout of the depots with an advanced computer program. Based on the available space and the optimal use of shelf heights, the result was fourteen “format classes”, divided over a total of over 40,000 shelves.”
Safely stored
The new construction of the depot extends over four floors and is located underground. The mobile bookshelves are manually operated on level -2, and electronic on levels -3 and -4. This in connection with safety; sensors prevent people who have become unwell downstairs from being trapped if someone closes above a cabinet. These mobile bookshelves have the most modern security functions that ensure the safety of the user and the archive materials.
