Jon - Thanks for your detailed feedback. That's very helpful.
Don
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
-----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: 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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