Philatelic Research Partnership Announced

The American Philatelic Research Library has announced that it has "joined forces with preeminent philatelic libraries around the world to provide a centralized gateway to the greatest philatelic research in existence."

According to an e-mail announcement, "Founding partners in the initiative include the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum (www.postalmuseum.si.edu/) and Smithsonian Libraries (www.sil.si.edu/), Washington, DC, the Royal Philatelic Society London (www.rpsl.org.uk), United Kingdom, and the American Philatelic Research Library (www.stamplibrary.org), Bellefonte, PA."

Other partners participating in the project include: Rocky Mountain Philatelic Library, Denver, CO; Slusser Memorial Library, Postal History Foundation, Tucson, AZ; The Collectors Club Library, New York; Harry Sutherland Philatelic Library, Vincent Graves Greene Philatelic Research Foundation, Toronto, Canada; and Western Philatelic Library, Sunnyvale, CA.

The announcement goes on to say, "The goal of the project is to establish a single destination on the web where philatelists around the world can search, locate, and access philatelic research from partner libraries in real-time, from any computer. Searchable listings of books and publications, as well as resource locations and access, will soon be one click away, providing an invaluable resource to those doing philatelic research. Major pre-1923 publications, including The Stamp-Collector’s Magazine, Illustrated, London, from 1865–1874, have been digitized and will be made available at no charge. Other resources considered proprietary by partner libraries may also be accessed through membership programs and other avenues via the portal, which is planned to launch in June."

To learn more, click here.