Saturday, June 10, 2006

Zimmerman Library Update

We received the following message from Teresa Neely, Director of the Zimmerman Library at UNM in Albuquerque.

"Thanks so much for keeping your users informed and updated about Zimmerman Library and our recovery efforts. The Library remains closed at this time and the investigation into the fire by the state fire marshal is still ongoing. Staff in the Dean’s office which is on the 2nd floor were able to return to their offices several weeks ago but the remaining staff formerly housed throughout Zimmerman (all of technical services, Center for Southwest Research, Library Information Technology, Reference, Government Documents, and Circulation, Acquisitions, ILL, Collection Management and tenants are still working from locations as disparate as homes, other branches, the SUB (student center), or other departments on campus.

"All of the collections in the basement have been removed and those that were salvageable were packed and shipped to Texas for assessment and cleaning. This monumental task was completed in about 13 days and was only possible through complex collaboration of library staff and those contracted to do the pack-out.

"One silver lining in this all is that we believe we will be able to implement some of our Research Plaza plans as well as further refine plans to consolidate Government Information and Reference Services on the 1st floor. This means that when the building reopens (1st, 2nd and 3rd floors only), last reported at mid to late June, the reference Area and collection on the 1st floor will be unavailable while that space is being refurbished. Mini computing pods will be set up in the Exhibit space on the first floor and on the 2nd floor. Wireless will be restored throughout the building. The timeline for the basement reopening is considerably longer and dependent upon a number of factors."

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