Since many MEPSI members are also members of MexiMail it seems appropriate to use this venue to post information and news about the Library.
The MEPSI Library is now located in Strasburg, Virginia after recently being moved from its previousl location in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Most of the bound items have been unboxed and shelved, although members should understand that a lot of the Library is made up of loose files in a large filing cabinet, most of which has gotten out-of-order over the years and through several moves, and which will take a significant amount of time to organize. Also, many of the materials are very fragile and not suitable for circulation. Most lending libraries end up wearing out their books by lending them out, and that should not be the fate of our library.
The current plan for the Library is to digitize as much of the material as is feasible, subject to copyright restrictions, time available, etc. This will provide for long term preservation as well as more efficient access - it's also a lot easier, faster, and cheaper sending a PC file than it is using the post office! Even for those library products for which there is a charge, it is almost always cheaper to pay for the DVD or CD than it is to borrow the item from the Library. As a recent example a member borrowed the Eagle book by Leo Corbett and it ended up costing him over $28 for postage and insurance - that is pretty expensive to borrow a book.
Current procedure is to charge a nominal fee for those digitized items to which MEPSI holds the copyright. There are also some other holdings which are the result of MEPSI funding, such as the photocopies of the John Bash collection, and for which the Library will charge a small fee. In almost all cases the fee for the DVD or CD is less that the cost would be to borrow the original work and paying for postage and insurance, and the member then owns a permanent copy of the item. Some other items are digitized and made available to members to download free of charge over the internet. An example of this would be "the Campeche Book" which was published in 1909 and the copyright of which has long expired.
For those interested there is attached here a current copy of the inventory of bound items in the library. The list is based on the inventory prepared in 1998 by John Kordich. It is in pdf format so you will need a copy of the free Adobe Reader to view it. If the far left column contains an "X" then the item has been identified as present and is locatable by the "call number" in the next column. When asking about a particular item please include the call number, since that is how the items are shelved.
More later.....
