I would also suggest that you check out the US Philatelic Classics Society and their Electronic Library at
http://www.uspcs.org/resource-cente...nic-library/They also have a number of publications digitized, although they are perhaps more focused on specialized collecting areas.
These electronic resources are one wave of the future in information distribution. Both Google Books and Hathi Trust websites have many worthwhile philatelic publications available, although difficult to access. One problem with both of these digital libraries is that not all materials are accessible to collectors outside the United States.
For collectors who want to access historical publications of the US Post Office Department (
Postal Guides, Postal Laws & Regulations, Reports of the Postmaster General, The Official Register - which included biannual information about post office revenues and postal employees), I have compiled a series of
Portals that simplify the access to many of these currently located in the various digital libraries. These can be found at the Texas Postal History Society web site at
http://www.texascovers.org/featured-articles/These
Portals are simple PDF files with the publication title, date, and a URL link to the associated publication. In many instances, I have included multiple URL links to the same publication in different digital libraries as these occasionally have missing or badly scanned pages.
There is also a rather incomplete essay on what sorts of information might be found in these various publications and how they can be used.
Searchable versions of the
USPOD Official Postal Bulletins and Postal Laws & Regulations are also available at
http://www.uspostalbulletins.com/While there is a great deal of search flexibility with this group of digital files, it is not possible to simply browse for general information,
Unfortunately, these digital volumes tend to "disappear" from time to time, so please let me know if any of the ones from this set of
Portals are not working.
Mike
Posted 12/13/2016 5:42 pm
