Further to the update we provided in August, access to
some of the collection items held at the Library's Boston Spa site
continues to be restricted following the discovery of small traces of
asbestos in some areas.
All air sampling tests have found there to be no health
risk - however, the Library continues to take sensible and
responsible precautions to ensure the health and safety of Readers,
users and staff, in full compliance with the very strict health and
safety regulations applying to the management of asbestos.
Although some areas of the Boston Spa site remain
closed, leading to unavailability of items, a major programme of
asbestos removal and management has been ongoing since February. Our
priority has been to get the higher use collection items back in
service as quickly as possible.
We're pleased to announce the cleaning of the most
heavily used current serials and monographs stock (1985-present) is
now complete, and that overall fulfilment has gone up from 65% to
71%.
Following discussions with DCMS, funding for the bulk of
the programme has now been confirmed. Work to clear other areas is
being done in sections, so more of the remaining affected material
will become available as this work proceeds - however, some low use
items will continue to be unavailable into next year.
Interim measures to complete customer orders from
alternative sources remain in place - in particular fulfilling
requests from e-journal resources where licences for document supply
are held, and making greater use of duplicates in our London
stock.
We wish to thank customers for their continuing patience
while we deal with this substantial challenge - please be assured
that we are making every effort to make stock from the affected areas
available again as soon as possible.
Please cascade this information to colleagues as
appropriate. Please also continue placing orders as usual, and you
will be informed if you need to reapply for your requested item at a
later date.
If you have any questions or concerns please contact the
British Library Customer Services Department: customer-services@bl.uk
or +44 (0)1937 546060
