This is a message from Nancy Davenport, Director, Acquisitions
Directorate, Library of Congress. With Nancy's permission, Maureen Landry,
Serial Record Division Chief, asked me to forward it to this list.

Les Hawkins
CONSER Specialist
Serial Record Division
Library of Congress
<lhaw@LOC.GOV>

Paste:
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Many of you have wondered about the status of the Library of Congress and
possible anthrax contamination.  I'm pleased to tell you we're open-- for
researcher and visitors.  I've appended a letter to colleagues from
Winston Tabb.  Feel free to repost it to other library lists.

Nancy Davenport
ALA Councilor at Large

Dear Colleagues:

As many of you know, the Library of Congress was forced to close down
completely all three of our Capitol Hill buildings - with neither staff
nor public permitted to enter - from the close of business on Wednesday,
October 17, until this morning, October 25.  Today only staff were
permitted to return to the Library; on Friday, October 26, we expect to
re-open to the public.  The purpose of the closing was to enable
specialists to test all three buildings for possible anthrax
contamination.

I am pleased to report that no evidence of anthrax was discovered in any
of our buildings.  However, like the rest of the government, we are now
having to institute rigorous and time-consuming procedures for the
examination of all incoming mail.  Staff are understandably stressed
beyond anything I have encountered in my long years of service at LC, and
it will take us weeks--more likely months--to catch up and return to
normal productivity levels.

We are concerned about the impact these recent events will have on service
to other libraries, but request your forbearance as we attempt to regain
lost ground.  The impact will likely be greatest on 1)those libraries that
participate in our cooperative acquisitions programs in Islamabad and
Jakarta, where our staff have performed in a truly heroic manner under
very dangerous conditions; and 2) on libraries that depend on our
cataloging records, whether via our OPAC, OCLC, RLG and/or the Cataloging
Distribution Service.

Winston Tabb,   Associate Librarian