Reopening of the Library

We are proud to announce that during the months of August, September and October 2017, the research collections of the Gennadius Library were tagged with RFID security tags and the books, including the periodicals of the “Dory Papastratou Reading Room,” were moved to new mobile shelving in the new Ioannis Makriyannis Wing, which will be officially inaugurated in June 2018. The library has resumed its normal operations since November 1, 2017.

The RFID tagging of books is the first step in the modernization of the Library’s holdings, funded by a grant by the Niarchos, Mellon and Goldsmith foundations. In addition to facilitating the inventory of our holdings, the RFID tags will enable an up-to-date electronic check-out system within our non-circulating libraries for better monitoring of the collections.  In 2018 the holdings of all ASCSA libraries will be further integrated through the implementation of the Library of Congress classification system thereby improving physical and electronic access for all.

The newly tagged books will be reshelved in the Spring of 2019, when three new reading rooms will open to the patrons of the Gennadius Library. These improvements will offer greater access to the collections, facilitate scholarly research, and encourage public engagement with the unique holdings housed in the Gennadius Library. With the opening of the new Makriyannis Wing, it will be possible to segregate research resources from Special Collections and thus make the library more accessible to patrons and wider audiences. While the Special Collections will be showcased more prominently through special projects and exhibitions, the research collection of the Gennadeion will be for the first time housed in open stacks.

Until the completion of the reorganization of the library in the early summer of 2019, there will be no change in the request of books, i.e. the readers still need to complete call slips for books and periodicals that are not shelved in the Main Reading Room.