A moratorium on the North Otago Museum and archives accepting new items, unless exceptional, could be extended because of a lack of storage space.
The Waitaki District Council implemented a moratorium on all except rare, precious or unique items, in July last year for 18 months.
It ends this month, but the council's committee of the whole is being asked at its meeting on Tuesday to extend it, to be reviewed in July next year.
North Otago Museum curator Chloe Searle said the archive was full and the safety of collections was "compromised because of a lack of space".
Since the archive was established 20 years ago more than 87,000 archives, 8500 maps and 18,000 photographs had been catalogued. The council at present generated about 10 linear metres a year just with its own records, and this was expected to increase four to six times over the next few years.
The archive also housed records from the Waitaki district, but since 2007 had been more selective with criteria set down for what it would accept.
At that rate, over the next 10 years 146 linear metres of extra space would be required.
The council is looking at options to extend the archives, including the North Otago Blind Foundation Hall at the rear of the museum-archives building.
It was also looking at relocating to the upper level of the building, due to start next month and take about three months.
Space had been found for the photograph collection, at present in a safe on the mezzanine floor and deteriorating; by buying extra shelving and reorganising some storage.
The committee will also consider a recommendation to appoint a museum register for 12 months at a cost of $60,000, to come from bequest funds.
The job will include identifying items to de-accession (a process to remove them from the collection).
