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British Library book moves affecting Middle Eastern language material.

During the course of 2010, the British Library is undertaking collection moves which will include material in all Middle Eastern languages.  The items that are being moved will be unavailable to readers while they are prepared, moved and reshelved in the new storage building in Boston Spa.   Information about the shelfmarks affected by the embargo will be in the Library's April Reader Bulletin at www.bl.uk/collectionmoves/index.html  .

Books and journals in Arabic, Persian, Turkish and Hebrew (and other Middle Eastern languages) acquired since 1986, and all hard-copy newspapers, will be placed under an embargo from 10 May 2010. This material will not be available for use until it has been loaded into the new storage facility at Boston Spa. Material will be available again between the end of July and November 2010 when it has transferred.

Material in Middle Eastern languages acquired before 1986 will be moved to Boston Spa later in the year.  These moves will affect most books and journals published after 1850 (1900 for Arabic).  Books published before this date, and rare or special material, will not be moving and will be available for use at St Pancras as normal.  Books moving from St Pancras are scheduled to be unavailable from October 2010 until early 2011 when they have been transferred to the new building.

Material stored at Boston Spa will be available for use in the St Pancras Reading Rooms, but will need to be ordered 48-hours in advance. Most post-1950, non-UK, publications will be available for inter-library loan, as normal, once they have transferred.

Summary

Post-1986 books and journals, and all hard copy newspapers, will be unavailable from 10 May 2010.  Material will be available again from July 2010 to November 2010 depending on when it is transferred.  

Post-1850 (post-1900 for Arabic) but pre-1986 material will be unavailable from October 2010 until it has transferred (probably early 2011).

Particularly rare and older material will remain at St Pancras and will be available as normal.  The moves will not affect manuscripts, microfilm, recorded sound or e-materials, nor materials in Western languages.

 

For further information about these collections see www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelpregion/middleeast/meresources/index.html .