“Access to information is not a privilege, but a necessity for any free society.” - Ed Asner

Recently I had the welcome opportunity to take an American Philatelic Society member on a special tour here at the American Philatelic Center. He lives a considerable distance from us and had never been to the APC, where he was able to visit and check out the various departments and services of the APS, as  well as the American Philatelic Research Library. 

Near the end of the tour, as we finished walking through the library and its vast collections, the member asked about the Robert A. Mason Digital Library (RMDL). After describing the digital database to him, how to access it, search for results and our goals for its future, he asked a very pertinent question: “Do you think that digital resources will ever completely replace their paper counterparts?”

The question is a relevant one to the APRL and has both profound implications and even more profound answers. 

The chief consideration for digital resources as opposed to those that are paper-based is, “why do we digitize in the first place?” Is it to provide access, searchability of resources, preservation of materials, or as the member suggests in his question, to replace existing resources? As a librarian currently managing digital resources the answer lies in a combination of all of the aforementioned. 

For the APRL, digitization is critical to providing access to the resources our patrons  need to research and inform their collecting. This access must then be supplemented by the ease and ability for patrons to search those resources effectively and productively.

Finally, as the director of information services here at the APRL, these digital reproductions of resources then enable us to preserve these materials, not necessarily in order to replace their paper originals.  As we look ahead to maximizing our existing resources and the space we have for our ever-growing physical holdings, this digitization is vital for enabling us to not only to continue to grow the physical collection as needed, but to make available to all patrons, wherever they may be, those same resources in digital form.

As this year draws to a close, the regular updates that have been provided regarding our digitization efforts and the RMDL, both here and on the website, are with all of these considerations in mind. 

We are grateful to those clubs and societies that have already granted us permission to publish their journals in the RMDL and we invite further organizations who may be interested in being part of the APRL’s efforts in growing the database to contact us at stiffney@stamps.org. In addition, we also are looking for other publications that may be of interest to philatelic such as books and exhibits in to grow not only the size of the database but its scope as well.     

The digital library in 2023

Beginning on March 1, much of 2022 was spent implementing Phase I of the library’s digitization project in which two part-time employees were hired, three workstations were purchased and efforts were focused on uploading pre-existing digital files for permissible journals. In 2023 we look to move into Phase II of the project in which we will hire another part-time employee as a well as a full-time digital librarian. The former hire will enable us to more efficiently use the three workstations on a daily basis by allowing us to increase our ability to upload existing digital files.

The latter hire will be responsible for the oversight and day-to-day management of the project, from dealing with vendors, working with staff, implementing protocols for the project moving forward and, finally, engaging with those patrons using the RMDL in order to ensure that the database is meeting their research needs. The digital librarian, in collaboration with the executive director and the library, will set the future goals for the digitization.  More details about this second phase of the project will be available on the website and this column in the future.

Postal history research

The Winton M. Blount Postal History Symposium is set to take place at the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum December 8-9 and will include 15 presentations by 17 speakers.

In a series of articles on the APS website the speakers and their sessions were introduced providing brief bios and summaries of their abstracts. The sessions will be available online both during and following the symposium. Once the event has been concluded, in time, each of the sessions will be available on the Postal History Symposium page of the APS website. 

With the theme for the 2022 symposium being “Political Systems, Postal Administrations, and the Mail,” the sessions are divided into five panels, or subsections, with three presentations in each panel. The five panels are “The Postal Service in Twentieth-Century American Life,” “Various Purposes of Stamp Messaging,” “Regimes in Flux: Their Impact on Postal Operations and Stamp Design,” “Postal Networks and the Flow of Information,” and “Stamp Iconography in Fascist Regimes.” 

Our hope is the sessions will provide both engaging discussion and the opportunity for educating those viewing the event both during and after the symposium about current worldwide postal history research. 

We would also, in looking toward 2024 when the APS and APRL will host the symposium, like to encourage researchers interested in presenting sessions for the future event. Although a theme for the 2024 symposium has not been finalized, the theme will involve the Universal Postal Union (initially the General Postal Union) and its impact on worldwide postal history as it celebrates the 150th anniversary of its creation with the signing of the Treaty of Bern in 1874.

Service fees update

With this last column of the year we would like to make our readers and library patrons aware of some slight fee changes for library services starting in 2023.

Due to the cost of mailing items that are being borrowed from the library (a service available to all APS members, in-person or remotely) and for the increased staff time necessary to fulfill requests that involve scans, the APRL proposes two changes to our fee structure that will commence in 2023.

The first fee change involves the borrowing of library material. Currently the fee for this service is $13 for the first item borrowed and then $1 for each additional item, up to five items per request. In the new year the fee will change to $15 for the first item borrowed and then $1 for each additional item up to five items per request.  As mentioned this slight fee change will help to offset some of the increased mailing costs being experienced by the library.

The other fee change will be regarding requests that involve scans being sent to patrons via email. Currently the fee for this service per request is $4 for the first page of scans and then 25 cents for each additional page. For 2023, the fee for the first page will increase to $5 and then the existing 25 cents for each additional page.

We hope that our members and library patrons will understand the need for these slight changes and if anyone has any comments or concerns regarding these being implemented we would welcome hearing from you at stiffney@stamps.org or by calling the library at extension 246.

Ask a question

Finally, we would like to make everyone aware that coming early in the new year, the library will  host an “Ask-Me-Anything” session online with the opportunity to ask the library director anything about the library and its services. Still in the planning stages, further details regarding the AMA Library session will be announced on the APS website when available. This is your chance, whether you are new to the APRL or an experienced patron of the library, to ask us anything about the library, our services and the collections.