Requesting General Collections Materials from Fort Meade

A Guide for Public Reading Room Users

The Library's High Density Storage Facility at Fort Meade, Maryland, opened on November 18, 2002. The transfer of selected items from the Library's collections on Capitol Hill to Fort Meade has begun. Approximately 1.52 million volumes have been transferred to the first storage module. An additional 1 million volumes have been transfered to Module 2. This will serve to relieve severe overcrowding in the book stacks of the Library's Capitol Hill buildings. Module 2 opened in November 2005 and will hold approximately 2.2 million volumes.

Materials from the following collections are being transferred to Fort Meade:

• General Collections
• African and Middle Eastern Division
• Asian Division
• Law Library
• Music
• Machine Readable Collection

Updating of ILS Records

As materials are transferred off-site, the corresponding records in the OPAC (Online Public Access Catalog) will be updated to indicate that the items are located at Fort Meade. Both the call number field in the copy record and the "Request in" location will show that the item is stored at Fort Meade, as in the following General Collections example.

Requesting General Collections Materials from Fort Meade

To request a General Collections item from Fort Meade, submit a standard paper call slip at the Center Desk in the Main Reading Room or at the Book Service desk, located in the Center Room adjacent to the Science/Business Reading Room (Fifth Floor, Adams Building). Tell the attendant on duty that the item is stored at Fort Meade.

Requested materials are transported twice a day, Monday through Friday, from Fort Meade to Capitol Hill. There are no Saturday deliveries.

First Daily Delivery:

Fort Meade materials requested before the close of business on any day will be included in the first retrieval of the next delivery day (Monday through Friday). The first delivery will arrive at the Book Service stations between 11:00 AM and 12:00 Noon.

Second Daily Delivery:

Fort Meade materials requested before 12:00 Noon on any weekday will be included on the second delivery of that day. The second delivery will arrive at the Book Service stations between 3:00 PM and 4:00 PM.

Use of Materials:

Upon delivery from Fort Meade, materials will be held at the Book Service desk for seven days. Once picked up by the requester, General Collections materials retrieved from Fort Meade can be used in the same manner as other General Collections materials. This includes the charging of materials to assigned Study Desks or Study Shelves.

Requesting of Other Fort Meade Materials

Selected collections materials from the CALM, the Law Library, Asian Division, African and Middle Eastern Division, Music Division and Humanities and Social Sciences Division are being transferred already to Fort Meade. Consult with the staff in the reading rooms operated by those organizational units for guidelines on requesting their materials from Fort Meade.

Questions, Comments, Etc.

Questions and comments about this program may be forwarded to Ask a Librarian