The following article is from Eastmans Online Genealogy Newsletter and is copyright 2003 by Richard W. Eastman. It is re-published here with the permission of the author. Information about the newsletter is available at <http://www.RootsForum.com/>http://www.RootsForum.com. Wisconsin Historical Society Library Closes Temporarily The following is an announcement from the Wisconsin Historical Society: The Wisconsin Historical Society Library (including the Library Reading Room, Microforms Room, Circulation Desk and Stacks) will be closed between May 19 and June 14, 2003 to facilitate a dramatic reorganization of the Library's book stacks. Services will resume on June 16, 2003. During the closed period, the Library will continue to respond to reference inquiries sent by mail and will maintain lending services through Interlibrary Loan and UW Book Retrieval/Universal Borrowing. Historical Society administrative offices, the Archives Research Room and Archives reference services will be unaffected by the Library closure. As many visitors have commented, the Library stacks are full to overflowing, making it difficult to find items and making it impossible to put new items on the Library's shelves in their correct places. At the present time, locating a book may require checking three different locations in the stacks. New materials must be stored on top of other books, in piles on the floor, or out of order on shelves several floors away from the normal location. This situation not only presents problems for patrons, but results in premature aging of materials improperly shelved.To improve public access and storage conditions for our books, we will open a new Library stack area to the public, integrate recently cataloged material into the general collection, and shift the stacks to decrease overcrowding. The new stack area is being created by moving materials such as un-inventoried gifts stored for future review, newspapers awaiting microfilming, and some archival collections from their previous closed stack locations within the Historical Society building to an offsite facility. This process has already begun in preparation for reorganizing the Library's stacks.When we reopen the Library on June 16, visitors will find books in their proper place and shelf space for adding new materials to the collections. The result will be better service to our patrons, longer life expectancy for our books, and more efficient stack maintenance by our staff. Questions about the closure may be directed to (608) 264-6477.During the Library closure, reference questions may be directed to Library Reference, Wisconsin Historical Society, 816 State Street, Madison, WI 53706 or to <mailto:libref@whs.wisc.edu>libref@whs.wisc.edu