Oriental & India Office Collections moving information

[Frank Conlon]

Colleagues:

Having raised the caution flag earlier today, I checked on the British
Library web site and found the following:

                      Oriental & India Office Collections
                                       
     _________________________________________________________________
                                      
   To assist those planning to use the Oriental & India Office
   Collections during 1998 or 1999 the following information is provided
   about the transfer of the Oriental & India Office Collections from
   Orbit House, 197 Blackfriars Road, to the new British Library building
   at St Pancras, Euston Road, London NW1.
     * The move of the OIOC collections is expected to take place over a
       9-month period between Spring 1998 and Spring 1999
     * The Reading Room at Orbit House will remain open until the start
       of the move, but with some material being unavailable during the
       last 3 months
     * There will be no Reading Room service from OIOC collections for a
       period of 4 months from shortly after the start of the move
     * The new Oriental and India Office Reading Room in the St Pancras
       building will open at the end of this closed period, but some
       material may still not be available initially
     * Full services from all parts of the collections will be resumed
       within 5 months of the opening of the new Reading Room
       
Enquiries and photographic service

   Every effort will be made to maintain other Oriental & India Office
   Collections services as normally as possible during 1998 and 1999, but
   there may well be delays in answering enquiries by letter, fax or
   e-mail during this period, and the processing of reprographic /
   photographic orders may well also be delayed.
   
Closure of other departments and transfer of their collections to St Pancras

   Music Collections
       Map Library
       Department of Manuscripts
       Philatelic Collections
       
Further information

   The information presented here reflects the current state of knowledge
   about the transfer of materials to St Pancras. If you have any further
   questions, however, or wish to be kept informed either by post or
   email, please contact
   
     Oriental & India Office Collections
     British Library
     197 Blackfriars Road
     London SE1 8NG
     
     Tel +44 (0)171-412 7811
     Fax +44 (0)171-412 7641
     
     Email oioc-move at bl.uk
     
   September 1996
   
   From Portico - The British Library's Online Information Server
     _________________________________________________________________
                                      

Frank F. Conlon
Professor of History
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195
Co-editor of H-ASIA
<conlon at u.washington.edu>