Opening the Book shelving is superbly designed for maximum flexibility and impact of product display. It is worth visiting one of our libraries to see the effect in practice that high-quality shelving design has on making the books look good. Many shelving systems look more like storage units than display units – they do not present the products in ways which make them jump out to the eye and the hand.
Bookshelves are the single largest item in any library layout in terms of quantity and impact on the customer. So it’s worth getting them right.
Design and appearance
- Our shelving has character and warmth. We use innovative shapes and colours to create enticing spaces which draw people in.
- Our shelving system can be supplied in many different finishes to achieve completely different effects – ultra-modern/classical; warm and vibrant/cool and sophisticated; wood grains, solid colour or metallic appearance.
- Added lightboxes with artist-designed graphics bring a real ‘wow’ factor
- The design is high-quality with fully-finished end panels, top-caps, kicker panels, edge-banding and fully adjustable shelves. We use high quality laminates and a quality manufacturing process. We employ skilled fitters to build the shelving on-site. The result is durable, well-finished and good-looking.
Newly-installed 8 bay propeller at Wickersley Library, Rotherham
Functionality
- Adjustable heights with simple pin system to change the interval between shelves to accommodate different book formats.
- Shelf positions are angled so the books are tipped towards the eyeline of the viewer standing in front.
- Every shelf is ‘L’ shaped and can be positioned differently to interchange shelf depth between fiction and larger format non-fiction ensuring that books are brought to the front of the shelf.
- Angled shelves can be supplied for face-forward display.
- Integral bottom shelf bump-outs for all fiction areas, ensuring smaller books are brought to the front of the shelf.
- We can supply mobile versions of mid-floor units with lockable castors.
- Smart clipframe header system for flexible signage – the sign is clearly seen from a distance as it is separated from the books. Signs slide easily in and out and can be moved if the stock changes.
Orchard Park Primary School library
Durability
- Our shelving is built to last. People often say it looks as good as new even when it has been in a busy library for years.
- We use high quality melamine-faced MDF board as the core material for added strength, durability and load-bearing capacity.
- Shelf pins are solid steel and they are a press fit into the bookcase, locking into a notch in the underside of the shelf for safety and long-term load-bearing.
- Our shelves have a back upstand to carry the weight of the books and for extra longitudinal strength.
- Edge-banding is pvc, board coating is melamine, which withstands knocks and scratches much better than veneer.
- Signage holders are strong powder-coated steel.
- Signage is printed to 500 micron box card. The material is extremely robust and also fully recyclable. The printing system is Vutek UV flat bed. This approach offers scratch-resistant printing, is fully light fast and fade-resistant which means there is no need for PVC lamination or adhesives, thus keeping down costs and ensuring recyclability. Our printers use this system to print signage for McDonald’s.
- Extra shelves and pins for maximum flexibility are supplied as standard.