Essential Information
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National Maritime Museum
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03 Dec 2008
In August 2008 the National Maritime Museum announced the planned temporary closure of the Caird Library due to the move of the archive and library collections as part of a forthcoming £35 million redevelopment of the Museum's South West Wing.
This capital project involves the complete refurbishment of the current South West Wing, upgrading its conservation, storage and library services. Over the longer term the new wing, which will include a new research and reading room, will offer a significantly improved customer service to its users.
Before construction work begins on the new wing, we need to move many of our collections to offsite storage. This involves packing, documenting and relocating over 3,000 linear metres of archive and library material - over 300,000 items - a considerable task. The work requires the specialist skills of archive and library staff, as well as our collections staff, and is a major undertaking for the Museum.
Over the past few weeks, the South West Wing Project's anticipated work programme has been firmed up and this has given us some extra flexibility in regard to the Caird Library decant. The revised Library service provision will be as follows:
20 December 2008 - 4 January 2009
The Caird Library reading room will be open over the Christmas period on Saturday 20 December, Tuesday 30 December, Wednesday 31 December, Friday 2 January and Saturday 3 January 2009 10.00-16.45, with full access to all the Archive and Library's collections.
On Saturdays 20 December and 3 January, material will be available by prior arrangement only and closed for an hour 13.00-14.00. Please request material via the request function on the Archive online catalogue or the Library online catalogue, or contact the E-Library during Library opening hours on (0)20 8312 6516 to make an appointment for either of these Saturdays, so material can be retrieved for you in advance of your visit.
5 January - 1 June 2009
From the week beginning Monday 5 January 2009 until the completion of the move, by 1 June 2009 at the latest, the Caird Library reading room will be open on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 10.00-16.45. Collections available for consultation will be those held in the reading room, namely printed books, journals and microfilm holdings. Rare books are also available for consultation and should be ordered three days in advance (please order via the Library's online catalogue.
Direct research access to the manuscripts collections will not be possible during this period as they will be packed up and in transit to offsite storage. Nevertheless, the Library will continue to provide a copying service (digital scans) for master's certificates and crew lists during this period. In accordance with the Museum's obligation as a Place of Deposit for Public Records, access to information contained within the public records in our care will be maintained as required.
Access to online catalogues and electronic resources such as Ancestry Library will still be available from the E-Library, telephone (0)20 8312 6516. Throughout the period the Library will maintain its current enquiry service. Please contact library@nmm.ac.uk or manuscripts@nmm.ac.uk.
1 June 2009 - opening of Sammy Ofer Wing in 2012
From 1 June 2009 until the new Research Centre's anticipated opening in early 2012, the Library will be open on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and on the first Saturday of the month, for the consultation of all material in the archive and library collections. For readers requiring access to material held temporarily off site (as will be indicated by the online catalogues), the Library will operate a booking and appointments system to allow necessary time to retrieve such materials. Details on how to make an appointment and order material in advance will be communicated via our website as soon as possible.
Details on how to make an appointment post 1 June 2009 and order material in advance will be publicised in late January 2009. The appointment system is necessary to allow us time to retrieve the material for you from the offsite storage, and because of limited available seats in the reading room.
View the full Caird Library opening hours.
Eleanor (Head of Archive and Library)