Thursday, July 24, 2003

Information for UGA faculty, staff and students regarding fire at the Main Library

Damage to the Main Library annex as a result of Wednesday evening's fire necessitates that the building remain closed, perhaps for up to several weeks.

"The loss of materials and books was minimal, but it has to be cleaned up," said William Gray Potter, university librarian. "The whole building has to be cleaned up. We are making every effort to be back up and running by the time classes resume in August."

The flames were confined to the second floor of the annex in an area where the federal document repository is housed, but there is smoke and water damage of varying degrees in other parts of both the original and annex buildings.

Library employees are not to report to work until further notice. Information will be posted on the UGA Today Web page (www.uga.edu/news) and the Library's Web page (www.libs.uga.edu/). Salaried bi-weekly employees who receive paper checks need to go to payroll in the Business Services building on Broad Street to collect those checks.

Classes scheduled for library classrooms will be held in the Student Learning Center. The law library and the science library both are open with available study space for students displaced from the Main Library, as is the Student Learning Center.

UGA students, faculty and staff have borrowing privileges at all University System libraries and Emory University.

The Student Learning Center will be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and beginning Saturday, July 26, will follow the Main Library's regular schedule. The Law Library is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday. The telephone number for the Student Learning Center is 542-7000; the telephone is being answered by library staff.

Computer labs across campus are open on regular schedules for electronic access to materials. It is not yet known how long it will take to make books and other library materials available. We will provide updates through ArchNews postings and on UGA Today at www.uga.edu/news as they become available. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

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