Most Asian-language books and journals published before 1985 will be unavailable from 30 August 2011 until the move of this material to the new storage building has been completed. This will take at least three months. Books published before 1850 (1900 for Arabic and Chinese) will not be moving, but will also be unavailable during the preparation stage of the moves. These moves affect books with numeric shelfmarks in the range 14002.a.-19968.a.1.
Books from the former India Office Library that are shelved at St Pancras are not currently affected.
If you are planning to travel to the Library to consult older Asian-language books and journals, you should contact the relevant language curator before making travel arrangements to ensure that the material will be available.
Books and journals in Asian languages acquired since 1986 have now been moved to a new storage facility at Boston Spa. This material may be consulted only at the St Pancras site. It takes 48 working hours for the material to be delivered to the St Pancras reading rooms. (For orders made on Fridays, the material will not be available until the following Tuesday.)
Post-1948, non-UK, publications are available for inter-library loan, as normal. Newspapers in Asian languages are available for ordering to the St Pancras reading rooms only if there is no microfilm copy. Newspapers on microfilm are held at St Pancras and can be delivered to reading rooms in 70 minutes.
Summary
Most pre-1986 Asian-language publications will be unavailable for a period of some months from 30 August 2011.
Books and journals published after 1986 have been moved and are available for requesting. Delivery takes at least 48 hours.
Particularly rare and older material will remain at St Pancras but this material will be unavailable during the preparation phase of the moves (from 30 August 2011).
The moves will not affect manuscripts, microfilm, recorded sound or e-materials. Particularly rare or special printed books should not be affected but please check with language curators if you are travelling to see specific items.
Please contact specific language curators for more detailed information relevant to the language of the material you need.
See further information about the Library's collection moves.
