On 10/1/07, Florian Straub <flominator(a)gmx.net> wrote:
What about their chat feature called "Ask a
librarian" on their website?
I've asked for an article from a book, they scanned and mailed the copy
about 2 hours later and the next day I even had a copy of the original
release of it.
Tell them, what you need it for. I think it's worth a try.
It's harder for photos -- most of these federal archives are really
quite backwards in terms of their info technology policies and charge
an arm and a leg to scan things. (The Smithsonian amazingly charges
more based on DPI, despite the fact that upping the resolution while
scanning does not take any more effort and barely any more time!) And
their image processing departments take FOREVER last time I checked (I
filed to have a photo scanned for me last July and haven't heard back
from them yet. I managed to get permission to use it in my work from
them, but they haven't sent me the actual image yet! Totally lame.)
Fortunately most of the LOC stuff is already online but with a hidden
directory structure, as noted. (I think it further reflects their info
backwardness that they have a system like this, where hi res photos
are there but require guessing the URL. There's no rational reason to
have such a system -- it effectively manages to offer neither
convenience nor security.)
FF