Greetings!

The subject was just barely touched upon at the convention (ironically by the "shop" and not "museum" guys) and I now ask out of somewhat idle curiosity: are there any? And I am not referring to that pile of books and drawings on the shelf, how many of you have (or know of) organized RR library/archives?

Are they catalogued electronically, or better yet, online? I haven't had much success in finding anything and could just be going about it all wrong.

Angel

angelinanotgrimk@aol.com

> Greetings!

> The subject was just barely touched upon at
> the convention (ironically by the
> "shop" and not "museum"
> guys) and I now ask out of somewhat idle
> curiosity: are there any? And I am not
> referring to that pile of books and drawings
> on the shelf, how many of you have (or know
> of) organized RR library/archives?

> Are they catalogued electronically, or
> better yet, online? I haven't had much
> success in finding anything and could just
> be going about it all wrong.

> Angel

I don't quite understand the message. I know or several public collections of railroad papers and photos. are you looking for something specific?
M.Nix


2rivers@upstel.net

We are in the process of setting up the Charles J. Van Depoele Library and Archives in our Museum building. The link will show you what's there currently. Just click on the topic for the library.

The Electric City Trolley Museum Association

Sorry,

Maybe I ought to explain myself better. I am putting a museum spin on a library science course I am taking. I'm not so much interested in collection content as the number of organized collections out there. Maybe a listing or database of railroad history- or rolling stock-oriented (to use the term broadly) libraries?

I am simply curious as to means of cataloging and collection policies. Museum libraries were more what I had in mind, only because they would be easier to locate than collections in an existing library, or private collections.

Angel

angelinanotgrimk@aol.com

Thank you, that is exactly the kind of stuff I had in mind.

angelinanotgrimk@aol.com

The Trolley Museum of New York is still in the process of cataloging its collection of photos, books, slides, etc. You can get a peek at our photograph database at the attached link. Look for the subtitle 'Browse the Database.'

Visit the TMNY Archives
webmaster@tmny.org

Dear Angel,
You have posed an interesting question. There are a number of university libraries around with railroad/transportation sections. But the results are not so good for the volunteer based museums. They vary from non-existant to quite professional. One of the best is the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden.

On the traction side, the Seashore Trolley Museum is just traction, no railroad at all.

The libraries at the State RR Museums in Strasburg,PA and Sacramento, CA are quite professional.

Nothing like cataloging is on line that I know about. Mostly, volunteers would rather chip paint than work in a library. TM

ted_miles@NPS.gov

The Illinois Railway Museum has two "external" libraries in addition to the various department-specific history files. The first is the Pullman Library, which has cataloged a sizeable portion of the Pullman Company's collection of drawings and reference material. The second, newer library is the Strahorn Library, which - unlike the Pullman Library - is open to the public. The Strahorn is assembling an enormous collection of railroad-related books and other publications that will be made available to the public on a non-loan basis for research and education.

frank@gats.com

The John Barringer collection at the Mercantile Library in St. Louis is definitely first class. I was researching an obscure topic - anti-trust suits against the various anthracite railroads, and they were able to come up with several relevant pieces.

Erie Lackawanna Dining Car Preservation Society
tstuy@eldcps.org

The East Ely Railroad Depot Museum is part of the Nevada Department of Cultural Affairs, Division of Museums and History. Their collection is housed in the original Nevada Northern Railway depot at East Ely. Although commonly confused because of their physical proximity, they are a separate entity from the tourist railroad dba the "Nevada Northern Railway Museum".

"The vast collection contains thousands of documents that represent the history of the Nevada Northern Railroad. These documents range from payroll ledgers to original right of way maps."

Their web site is linked below, but contains little more than contact information. The email for museum curator Sean Pitts is listed at a different telephone web page posted by the state: ESM@the-onramp.net

Cheers,
Keith Albrandt


East Ely Railroad Depot Museum
kalbran1@NOSPAMsan.rr.com

> I am simply curious as to means of
> cataloging and collection policies. Museum
> libraries were more what I had in mind, only
> because they would be easier to locate than
> collections in an existing library, or
> private collections.

Orange Empire Railway Museum has in a sense several library collections. These are from various technical, trade, corproate or railfan sources. They currently take up about 3500 sq feet of floor space at several locations. These are awaiting the eventual construction of a consolidated storage/reference site. Until then they are not readily available for general reference use.

Angel, if you want some more information about our collecting policy and the extent of our holdings contact me directly.

Brian Norden
member, Board of Directors, OERM

bnorden49@earthlink.net

This brings up an interesting question...for any of you out there who are up to date on trademark and copyright restrictions:

Does the conversion of blueprints, rulebooks, timetables, etc. to digital format (i.e. "on line") violate copyright and trademark laws?

Does the age of the item (say a 1909 Santa Fe rule book) make any difference (i.e. do copyrights ever expire? I think that some types of trademarks do.)

I have thought of scanning some old reference manuals, rule books, etc. and establishing a "digital archives" for research. The users would not be able to make hard copies themselves, which I think goes a long way toward protecting the copyright. It is kind of like me lending you an old book to read through, but you can't go and zerox it. Does this line of thinking make sense? Any legal pitfalls?

Appreciate any and all comments.

KES

> Greetings!

> The subject was just barely touched upon at
> the convention (ironically by the
> "shop" and not "museum"
> guys) and I now ask out of somewhat idle
> curiosity: are there any? And I am not
> referring to that pile of books and drawings
> on the shelf, how many of you have (or know
> of) organized RR library/archives?

> Are they catalogued electronically, or
> better yet, online? I haven't had much
> success in finding anything and could just
> be going about it all wrong.

> Angel


rrm@texas.net

My preface and disclaimer: I have no training or education in the law.

The homepage of the U.S. Copyright Office can be found at the URL link below. It contains an extensive amount of information. After poking around for awhile, I realized why there is a specialty branch dealing with intellectual property and patent/copyright law.

Below are some additional web resources that may have some practical applications.

Fair Use and Copyright Law (includes resource links) at the Stanford University Libraries web page: http://fairuse.stanford.edu/

Myths about copyright pertaining to Internet publication; good, basic information: http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html

Concise synopsis of public domain timetables: http://www.unc.edu/~unclng/public-d.htm

Most of these web pages can lead you to others. I can also suggest typing "copyright law" into the Google search engine (http://www.google.com/), hit the "Enter" key, and preparing for a multitude of sites.

In my personal experience, the only "absolute" that I've discovered about U.S. Copyright law is that works published prior to 1923 are in the public domain. (My fear is that there is a "yeah but" to that presumed truth also.)

Cheers,
Keith Albrandt


U.S. Copyright Office
kalbran1@NOSPAMsan.rr.com