----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Attention all colleagues: The General Research Division and its Main Reading Room will shortly udergo a major renovation at the New York Public Library's 42nd Street Research Building. The entire building will close to the public on Monday, July 14th, 1997. On Tuesday, the 15th, readers will find that the third floor Public Catalog Room, Room 315,and the Main Reading Room will have relocated the the first floor. The Public Catalog Room will be temporarily rehoused in the old Science Division Rooms, Rm. 121 and the Main Reading Room will be housed in smaller quarters in the Gottesman Exhibition Hall off the Astor Hall. This relocation will be in effect for the next 20 months. While every attempt to carry on normally will be made, there will be obvious repercussions: for example, seating is less in Gottesman and readers who have requested and are waiting for books, will receive tickets and they will be the only ones allowed access to the temporary reading room. Since 60% of the Art Division's holdings are located through the Main Reading Room, there will be a definite impact for art researchers. The Art & Architecture Reading Room in Room 313 will remain open for its usual hours; there will be an impact on our delivery service however, since we must page materials from the stacks through alternate and lengthier means -- in other words, it will also take longer to get materials that are located through our reading room... We may also have to restrict photocopying more than previously, since the Copy Services will be on the first floor as well. I will alert you all to any further service restrictions down the road, we may have a short period of inaccessibility during the renovation, although this will not come for some time. Please notify your constitutents of these developments. We will try to do everything possible to accommodate during this renovation, but readers will undoubtedly feel some constrictions. Paula A. Baxter Curator, Art & Architecture Collection Room 313 New York Public Library 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue e-mail: [log in to unmask]