Do you want access to great libraries? Search the APRL’s Philatelic Union Catalog

In his Collecting Canada column, Fred Baumann salutes the British North America Philatelic Society (BNAPS), and mentions one of the society’s greatest assets, its philatelic library, which is now available online.

In this column in the Aug. 24 issue of Linn’s, I referred to the American Philatelic Research Library in Bellefonte, Pa., as a “gift to stamp collectors.”

The BNAPS library and the APRL are two of many libraries available to stamp collectors, and some philatelic libraries are available online.

For the benefit of stamp collectors and stamp collecting, the APRL brings together several of the world’s greatest philatelic libraries in its Philatelic Union Catalog. The catalog provides collectors the opportunity to access the “card catalogs” of these libraries with a single search.

In addition to the APRL, the libraries include the Collectors Club of Chicago (CCC), the Collectors Club of New York (CCNY), the Vincent Graves Greene Philatelic Research Foundation, the Harry Sutherland Philatelic Library, the Northwest Philatelic Library (NWPL), the Postal History Foundation, the Peggy J. Slusser Memorial Philatelic Library, the Rocky Mountain Philatelic Library, the Royal Philatelic Society London, the Roger G. Schnell Library of the Scandinavian Collectors Club, the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum Library, the Western Philatelic Library, and the Wineburgh Philatelic Research Library.

Collectors can search the vast holdings of participating libraries by completing a search form at the APRL website.

Members of the APS or APRL can enter requests to borrow books or obtain scans or photocopies directly from the online Philatelic Union Catalog.

Simply select the book or article desired, and click Add to Cart. You can review the cart and enter any special instructions, including whether you prefer scans or photocopies of journal articles.

The cost of borrowing books is a nominal fee and postage to your location and back to the APRL.

The APRL online catalog is an invaluable research tool. Linn’s editors use it frequently to find articles that have been published in journals that we have in our own library and to obtain articles that we otherwise would not have access to.

We highly recommend this unrivaled resource to our readers.