Florida International University: The Case of the Rum Bottles

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Iron Mountain Media & Archive Services collaborated with FIU Libraries to safely transport and preserve a unique collection of over 400 rum bottles, creating customized packaging and inventory solutions to make this rare archive accessible for research.

Graham Duncan
Graham Duncan
MLIS | Solutions Architect, Iron Mountain Library and Archival Services
November 6, 20247 mins
Florida International University

As I sat at lunch on the Florida International University campus a few months ago with Nancy Kirkpatrick, the new FIU Dean of Libraries, she asked what may seem like an odd question from the leader of an academic library:

"Do you have any experience working with rum bottles?"

Although most of my experience with rum bottles comes from activities outside of working hours, I do have vast experience packaging archives (more about that in my next blog!), so I was immediately intrigued by her question. As it turns out, the FIU Special Collections team had been gifted an extensive collection of rum bottles from around the world by a former professor that were to be used as an archival research resource on campus. There were two outstanding issues, however, they needed to solve: 

  1. How to transport these glass bottles safely from the donor’s house to the FIU campus?
  2. And how to make rum bottles - many of which still contained spirits - accessible to researchers?

To meet FIU’s needs on a compressed timeline, we put together an Iron Mountain team with a deep understanding of the special handling requirements regarding relocating and imaging archival materials. That being said, rum bottles are not “traditional archival materials.” Thus we needed to create a customized solution, designed around the unique nature of these materials, including nonstandard boxes and specialty-built pallets for safely packing and transporting the bottles. We also needed a customized inventory software for inventory and metadata capture. And finally, we needed to set up our own photography station at FIU for 360° imaging of the bottles. Over three days at the donor’s house, and an additional two weeks at FIU, our team successfully barcoded, packed, transported, and imaged over 400 rum bottles. 

Before joining Iron Mountain, I worked in collection development at an academic special collections library, where I managed many collection transfers from donors' homes to the library. These relocations are always challenging, and it was deeply satisfying to leverage Iron Mountain's logistical and collection expertise to assist FIU with this project. 

We have formed what I hope is a lasting partnership with the FIU team. We will join the FIU team on campus next month to formally announce the acquisition of the collection. Most importantly, the unique rum bottle collection is now safely preserved at FIU and will be able to be studied by students and researchers from around the world.