Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery, Exeter, Devon UK

The mammoth task of packing up and moving one and a half million objects ready for the Royal Albert Memorial Museum's ambitious redevelopment is underway.

When RAMM closed its doors to the public on 1 December 2007, its long planned Embark programme went into action. The building contractors take possession of the building in April giving only four months to move the entire collections out.

The Embark programme encompasses the packing and moving of an extraordinary array of objects. Many need very specialist individual attention and handling, all need care and careful documentation. Without accurate and comprehensive records, finding a particular object for redisplay or research would be like looking for a needle in a hay stack - with inaccurate records, objects could be carefully stored but lost for years.

There are no mammoths in RAMM's collections, but there are thousands of delicate butterflies, massive paintings and carvings, intricate lacework, elaborate costumes, elephants, hippo's and of course Gerald, the Giraffe. All must be assessed, packed, moved and recorded. Most will be stored in the new, purpose-built, environmentally friendly store but a few, like Gerald, will stay at the Museum.