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<TITLE>IMPORTANT about ARSEF culture collection (temporary shut-down of activity in Nov-Dec 2008)</TITLE>
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<FONT COLOR="#7F0000"><FONT SIZE="4"><FONT FACE="Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:14.0px'><B>IMPORTANT NOTE:<BR>
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The USDA-ARS Collection of<BR>
Entomopathogenic Fungal Cultures (ARSEF)<BR>
MUST TEMPORARILY HALT<BR>
ALL RECEIPTS AND DISTRIBUTIONS<BR>
while moving to new cryogenic facilities<BR>
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REQUESTS FOR ISOLATES:<BR>
ARSEF will defer processing of new requests after 20 October 2008 <BR>
</B></SPAN></FONT></FONT></FONT><FONT FACE="Arial"><B><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'>but will try to fill earlier orders before the move begins on 3 November.</SPAN><FONT COLOR="#7F0000"><FONT SIZE="4"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:14.0px'> <BR>
</SPAN></FONT></FONT><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'>ARSEF may have to delay shipping larger or more complex requests <BR>
</SPAN><FONT COLOR="#7F0000"><FONT SIZE="4"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:14.0px'> </SPAN></FONT></FONT><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'>until after this transition is complete.<BR>
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DEPOSITIONS OF NEW ISOLATES IN ARSEF:<BR>
Please defer new shipments to ARSEF until January 2009. <BR>
</SPAN></FONT></FONT></B></FONT><FONT FACE="Adobe Garamond Pro"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'> <BR>
</SPAN></FONT><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">The moving process will start on 3 November and continue for 4-6 weeks. Many tens of thousands of cryovials will be moved from several overcrowded nitrogen dewars to a different space with a much larger, more cryogenically efficient dewar while simultaneously updating our database to reflect the new locations of all cryovials. <BR>
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Please be patient if we are slow or unable to respond to your messages during this period. Your patronage of the ARSEF collection is vitally important to us, and we hope to be able to provide a new level of service once this transition is complete.<BR>
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ARSEF will resume shipping and receiving fungi as soon as possible but this suspension of routine collection activities may extend into our usual year-end ‘break’: As a matter of policy, we rarely ship isolates during late December, a widely observed holiday period, when the weather, postal/shipping conditions, and a requesting laboratory’s ability to receive or to process isolates remain unpredictable. Full normal operations of the ARSEF collection may not resume until Monday, 5 January 2009.<BR>
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Please check the ARSEF website, <a href="http://arsef.fpsnl.cornell.edu,">http://arsef.fpsnl.cornell.edu,</a> from mid-November for updates about our progress and anticipated resumption of services. ARSEF will also notify recent customers about when we will resume normal operations both by email and notices on the websites of the Society for Invertebrate Pathology and Mycological Society of America.<BR>
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Richard A. Humber<BR>
Insect Mycologist and Curator, ARSEF<BR>
Phone: 607-255-1276<BR>
Email: Richard.Humber@ars.usda.gov<BR>
<a href="http://arsef.fpsnl.cornell.edu">http://arsef.fpsnl.cornell.edu</a><BR>
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