[NHCOLL-L:171] Smithsonian Bird Collection announcement

[James Dean]

The Division of Birds, Smithsonian Institution and the Bird Unit of the USGS
- Biological Resources Division are pleased to announce that we are once
again re-opening for normal business following our long shutdown for
building renovations.  We are near completion of the bulk of the collection
and office move, so we have established the following schedule.

We will begin accepting the return of existing loans as of 6 July 1999.
Anyone attending the SPNHC meetings (June 27 - 2 July) in Washington may
hand carry loans back at that time. All current borrowers will be receiving
individual notice of loans in their possession.

We will re-open the collections to visitors on 12 July 1999. Please contact
a curator or the collections manager to arrange visits to the collection.
The bird division library will remain out of service until mid September or
early October 1999.

We will begin accepting and processing new loan requests after 20 July 1999.
We ask that anyone submitting a loan or information request to please be
patient. We will have a number of clean up tasks still to do, and we
anticipate a rush of loan and information requests. It may take our
collections staff longer than normal to process all the requests.

Requests for loans or collection information should be addressed to the
appropriate curator. For North American specimens, please send your requests
to Dr. Richard Banks, USGS-BRD, MRC-111, Smithsonian Institution, Washington
DC 20560-0111. 
All other requests should be sent to Dr. Storrs Olson or Dr. Gary Graves,
Division of Birds, MRC-116, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC
20560-0116.   

For further information please contact the collections manager, James Dean,
at the Division of Birds address, or by e-mail dean.james at nmnh.si.edu.


James Dean
Division of Birds, MRC-116                                   202-357-2051
Smithsonian Institution                                    fax 202-633-8084
Washington, DC 20560-0116
web http://www.nmnh.si.edu/vert/birds
dean.james at nmnh.si.edu