The council said in a statement it would be upgrading its archival facilities to better preserve its collection of historical records and information.
Due to legislative requirements and issues around the way in which the archives were being preserved, rather than finding a new home for the records, the DCC decided to upgrade its facility.
Located in the lower basement of the Civic Centre, the archival facilities will be closed from today until February 2025 while upgrades take place.
The decision came soon after the Archives and Records Association of New Zealand (Aranz) warned it could remove the archives from the DCC’s care if they were not suitably stored.
In a report by the Otago Daily Times, former Archives New Zealand Dunedin regional archivist Peter Miller said Aranz had "great doubt" in the suitability of the current facilities.
"... and certainly it’s not a nice place for staff to work and researchers to go and use the archives", he said.
Former Hocken librarian and Archives NZ council member Stuart Strachan said the basement was "torturous" to navigate, difficult to access, lacked continuous staff and faced problems that put the facility at risk of flooding.
Archival materials would be packed away for safe keeping until the facility opened again next year.
The upgrades included improvements to the humidity, temperature control and monitoring systems, as well as pipe relocation, the installation of a leak detection system and an improved security system.
A dedicated work and viewing room would be built, separate from the storage area of the archives, for archivists and visitors to use.
There would also be two additional dedicated storage areas built with controlled atmospheres.
These improvements were said to provide a more "modern and up-to-date" facility, better equipped to manage and store archives.