'Bursting at the seams': P.E.I. archives begin move to Atlantic Technology Centre

After 37 years at the Coles Building in Charlottetown, theP.E.I. Public Archives and Records Office is beginning the process of moving to a new location in the city.

Work has begun to relocate the archives to the Atlantic Technology Centre next week.

"The ColesBuilding is bursting at the seams," said provincial archivist JillMacMicken-Wilson.

The archives takeup the entire fourth floor of the building and a fair portion of the basement with no option for expansion within the building, she said.

"We expect the move is actually going to take us several weeks," MacMicken-Wilson said. "It's not something that can happen very quickly."

Documents, maps, photographs

"We're very conscious of our responsibility for the historic document collection for the province so we want to make sure that we do this properly," she said.

Thousands of documents including photographs, maps and books need to be moved and reorganized, she said.

The new location will have a larger public reading room and more space to store and process archival material.

I think we'll be there a good long time. Jill MacMicken-Wilson

There will be increased office space for staff, which MacMicken-Wilson said is crucial to archival work.

"In the new facility the staff are actually going to have much more room to do that kind of work, which means the public will benefit because we will be able to process and make available more material," she said.

MacMicken-Wilson said some archival material held in storage at various locations in Charlottetown, including the Confederation Centre,will also be moved to the new building.

She said she expects theAtlantic Technology Centre will likely be the home of the public archives for some time.

"I think we'll be there for a good long time," she said.

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