March 4, 2009

Martin,
We had a little surprise today when books from the Reptiles library were being removed from the shelves. It caused a bit of a rumble among curators who were in the library at the time. A heads up from your staff of any further removals from Reptiles, Mammals and Birds will help us to avoid other surprises and to be at the ready, Perhaps you can provide me with more background on procedures, workflow, and how this incident came to be.
Gil, Courtney, nor I knew that the VZ books digitization had just finished in Fishes and was just beginning in Reptiles (For transfer to Cullman, yes we knew.) Otherwise, had we known, we could have alerted the VZ department to be aware of the project’s status so they could come to us in the event any title had to be retrieved.

Can you give me some idea when books from the other libraries may be pulled, i.e., Kellogg, maybe even Vert. Paleo.

I’ve asked Gil to place the topic of advance communications on the next BHL Standing Meeting agenda.
Thanks,

Ann M. Juneau
Head, Dept. of Natural and Physical Sciences
Smithsonian Institution Libraries
P.O. Box 37012 MRC 154
National Museum of Natural History, Rm 51
Washington, D.C. 20013-7012
Phone: 202-633-4939
Fax: 202-357-1896
Email: juneaua@si.edu