Re: (no subject)

[Orendil@aol.com]

Poster: Orendil@aol.com

In a message dated 22-Dec-98 19:00:06 Eastern Standard Time,
oftraquair@hotmail.com writes:

<< My husband's experience at the Library of Congress a few years ago 
 indicates that it is not a bad idea to search their files (can be done 
 on-line) before hand and place the order for what you want so that it is 
 ready and waiting for you when you get there.  The building they are in 
 is large enough to make the idea of the librarian just dashing off to 
 get something from the stacks laughable. It could take them an hour or 
 two to make the round trip to pick up a few items.  Worse yet, not 
 everything is in that building.  If what you want is stored off-site, 
 you simply are not going to get it that day.  At least, not on a 
 saturday afternoon.  Perhaps if you went in on a weekday morning they 
 could manage it by the end of the day.
 
 Bonne
  >>

As for myself, I usually try to keep some blank call slips with me so that I
can fill them out prior to arriving at the LOC, based upon late night searches
of the catalog from home. Their response time in retrieving books varies
greatly - they usually advertise 30-45 minutes for books that are in the same
building you are in, 1 to 1.5 hours for books in another building.
But I've had a 10 minute turn around time (just after they opened, for a book
in that building), to 3 hours (coming from another building...never found out
what the problem was). It is typically worst late in the day, when it's near
the end of semester for the numerous universities in this area.........

And the folks who work there can be very helpful (although, like every where,
you can also get some that can make the experience very frustrating). I have
had them volunteer to go next find the volume that I had been waiting for for
over 2 hours, even though it was in the building next door, and knowing that
by the time they would get it for me I would only have 15 minutes to look at
it before the reading room closed. 

Orendil
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