I recently saw two postings on here about, first, the closing of the
Guggenheim's Library and firing of it's staff (from the minutes of an
ARLIS meeting);  then, secondly, a different statement (by Robbin Murphy)
that they had simply moved to the SoHo branch.  I contacted Janine Henri
(who posted the ARLIS message) privately, and she responded thusly:
 
>Ed--The news which we had at our conference in Providence is that the
>staff was in fact let go.  The head librarian was hired on a temp.
>basis to assist in the disposition of the collection--which might
>include storing in SoHo.  The severance packages of the librarians
>includes a gag order, which makes complete information difficult.
>The Museum of Modern Art has sent out an official memo stating that
>they will not provide inter-library loan to the Guggenheim since
>they do not have a professional librarian.  We hope that the reaction
>of our society will influence the Board of Directors to rethink their
>decision--or at least prevent any further museum library closures!
>Janine Henri
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     A question to Robbin, do you know if they're in fact opening the
library up for public use at the Guggenheim, with a library staff?  If this
is true (which it seems to be from what Janine said above), it seems the
Guggenheim is in some deep water, financially.
Ed Bridges
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American Museum of Natural History
212 769-5277 fax
212 769-5740