Fw: British Library destroys Russian archive?

[Andrew Jameson]

From: Chris Thomas <Chris.Thomas at bl.uk>
To: Andrew Jameson <a.jameson at dial.pipex.com>
Subject: Re: British Library destroys Russian archive?
Date: 10 August 2000 16:41

     In response to the report about Russian newspapers, see below
     information provided by Ed King, Head of the BL Newspaper Library, in
     response to the original TASS report:

     The TASS statement of 8 August that these titles are:  ".the richest
     collection of pre-revolutionary Russian  newspapers" is somewhat
     exaggerated - the British Library has only five Russian Imperial
     newspaper titles (mostly incomplete runs)  that may be available for
     disposal.
     As a result of recent publicity, the Library has had a number of
     enquiries from libraries in Russia, who are interested in taking  the
     newspapers. The Newspaper Library is placing all the enquiries on file
     at present, as consultation is now taking place with  UK  academic
     community and libraries regarding the newspaper disposals.

     Chris Thomas

     Slavonic and East European Collections, The British Library

 *************************************************************************************
#7
BRITISH LIBRARY'S RUSSIAN NEWSPAPER ARCHIVE IS GIVEN AWAY
ITAR-TASS

London, 8th August: One of the world's largest libraries - the British
Library - has started destroying some of its newspaper archives. The
richest collection of pre-Revolutionary Russian newspapers is among those
threatened, the British Library's senior official, [?Bavna] Taylor, told
ITAR-TASS on Tuesday [8th August].

She said her repeated offers to hand the collection over to Russia for free
were unheeded by Russia's leading libraries, including the St Petersburg
Central Library.

Taylor said that any Russian organization interested in obtaining Imperial
Russia's newspaper collection starting from 1900 was free to contact the
British Library by fax: 0044-020-7412-7390.

The archives which are to be destroyed include 60,000 foreign newspapers
dated from 1870 onward.

*******

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