Another analogy from a more basic source:
Even if all the journals (William and Mary Quarterly 1 & 2, Tylers, Virginia Magazine of History, etc) cited in Swem, "Virginia Historical Index" were available online via JSTOR (or some other online source) would one still consider removing the published index from your reference collection?
We face a similar question here with our older international place name gazetteers. All of this information can be found and searched online but there are many instances where the only way to narrow down 19th century place names (often times in villages where the human population is far outstripped by the chicken population) is by browsing through a physical volume eliminating features by geographic coordinates.
In the final analysis, I guess it comes down to shelf space. If you can afford the space, I say keep the set. If you cannot afford the space, see if you can get a copy of the database from LVA so that you can have your own archival copy.
Ed
Ed Redmond
Geography & Map Reference Specialist
Library of Congress
Washington, DC 20540 - 4650
[log in to unmask]
202-707-8548
-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jon Kukla
Sent: Tuesday, September 06, 2011 5:46 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] Key to Survey Reports and Microfilm of the Virginia Colonial Records Project
Don,
As a frequent user of the volumes (in addition to having a hand in publishing them long ago) I find them useful in two ways - even though my first resort is to the LVA online catalogue.
First, the microfilm reel numbers are not always found on the survey reports
- in fact in my recent experience they are more often absent than present.
So when I go to use the film at LVA (or VHS, UVA, or CW), I'll bring the printed page(s) from the Survey Report I consulted on line at home, but I need to look up the reel number in order to find the material I'm seeking.
Second, as I described in the Introduction, for more than a century prior to the inception of the Virginia Colonial Records Project in the 1950s, British and American scholars and repositories published a slew of abstracts, calendars, and guides to records about America and Virginia in British institutions - all of them use one of the various familiar forms of citation to British records - C.O. classes and numbers for the Colonial Office at the Public Record Office, for example, or Additional Manuscript numbers for stuff at the British [formerly Museum] Library, etc. One also finds these citations in scholarly monographs, journal articles, bibliographies and the like.
SO, if you're trying to track down a manuscript that you've found in an old footnote or any number of published abstracts, calendars, or guides (many of which I listed in the Introduction, those columns of numbers can be the essential key that gets you from an antiquated citation to the correct survey report and microfilm reel. (Hence my comparison of the Key to Survey Reports to the Rosetta Stone.) Or - equally useful sometimes - that can confirm that for whatever reason (typically because it was not deemed Virginia-related) the material you're seeking from an old citation or guide was not filmed and needs to be pursued elsewhere.
IMHO, this second reason is cause for institutions that support serious scholarship to keep the Key rather than discard it . . . but of course if you have patrons who use VCRP film via inter-library loan, the first reason counts, too.
All best,
Jon
Jon Kukla
________________
www.JonKukla.com <http://www.jonkukla.com/>
On Tue, Sep 6, 2011 at 4:56 PM, Wilson, Donald L <[log in to unmask]>wrote:
> I need some advice from the list. In 1990, the Virginia State Library
> and Archives (its title at that time) published A Key to Survey
> Reports and Microfilm of the Virginia Colonial Records Project, in two volumes.
> It is a tabulation of British record groups and series, with cross
> references to Survey Report numbers and the microfilm reels they
> appear on.
>
> Now that the Virginia Colonial Records Project index has been put on
> the Library of Virginia's website, it looks to me as if every piece of
> information in the books is now online and searchable: The repository
> reference, the old and new Survey Report numbers, and the microfilm
> reel number, in addition to any subject tracings related to each reference.
> In light of that, is there any good reason to retain the bound volumes
> in our collection?
>
> Donald L. Wilson, Virginiana Librarian, Ruth E. Lloyd Information
> Center for Genealogy and Local History (RELIC), Prince William Public
> Library System, Bull Run Regional Library,
> 8051 Ashton Avenue, Manassas, VA 20110-2892
> 703-792-4540 www.pwcgov.org/library/relic
>
>
>
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