NOTICE OF CLOSING OF LOANS AND SHIPPING
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of Natural History
Department of Invertebrate Zoology:
January 1 - December 31, 2008
The National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, is in
the process of moving its entire fluid collections to a new off-site
collection storage facility called the Museum Support Center (MSC),
Maryland, about 8 miles away from the downtown Washington DC Natural
History Building. All the staff in the Department of Invertebrate
Zoology are involved in this complex move which is now in its first
stages for the invertebrate collections.
This is to inform you that the entire invertebrate collections of both
fluid and dry specimens will be closed for loans from January 1 to
December 31, 2008. Until December 31, 2007, we will attempt to process
incoming critical loan requests when staff are available, and if the
requested collections are accessible.
If you are planning a visit to the Museum during 2008, please make sure
to contact your sponsor to obtain the latest information on appropriate
dates in order to ensure availability of specimens that you may need to
examine. Portions of the fluid collections will not be accessible at
times, and there may be no staff to assist visitors to the dry
collections.
We thank you in advance for your understanding, and apologize for the
inconvenience our loan program shutdown may cause. We will re-open our
loan program as soon as possible, and will do our best to provide
collection access to visitors during the move. We will continue to
process incoming types and other critical specimens needed for
completing manuscripts.
As a result of the move we will finally be able to correct some long
standing collection arrangement problems for improved access, and will
be able to decompress the collections to provide internal growth space.
The new storage facility offers state-of the-art environmental controls
and life safety systems providing much-improved storage for the
collections. The new facility will also offer well equipped labs for
visiting scientists. We take this opportunity to extend an invitation
for you to visit us at the Museum Support Center after we complete the
move of the fluid collections.
Many thanks for your continued interest in our collections.
Dr. Rafael Lemaitre, Chair, Department of Invertebrate Zoology,
Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, P.O. BOX
37012, Washington, DC 20013-7012, USA; e-mail: lemaitrer from si.edu
Feel free to contact Kristian Fauchald (Fauchald from si.edu) or Linda Ward
(wardl from si.edu) for further details about the annelid collections.
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