TRANSITIONAL-GENEALOGISTS-FORUM-L Archives

Archiver > TRANSITIONAL-GENEALOGISTS-FORUM > 2010-01 > 1264379960


From: Karen Rhodes <>
Subject: Re: [TGF] BCG Standard #1, was GPS, now The Phrase
Date: Sun, 24 Jan 2010 19:39:20 -0500
References: <3e2fba731001230821y3d8f747i57213ad10ef9bb42@mail.gmail.com> <4B5BE9EA.4090703@comcast.net><F4C2CE30-F291-4AD4-BA24-6D766495A506@me.com>
In-Reply-To: <F4C2CE30-F291-4AD4-BA24-6D766495A506@me.com>


Jacqueline Wilson wrote:
> On Jan 24, 2010, at 12:34 AM, Karen Rhodes wrote:
>
> And from experience, I can tell you that if you show yourself to be a
> careful and respectful researcher, you may get access to materials that
> have been restricted to the general public.
>
>
> I have created a research kit that I will be taking with me when I
> begin my off-line research. It includes a pair of white cotton gloves
> and pencils. Any suggestions as to what else should be in the kit?
>
>

I would recommend mechanical pencils, which would also require packing
leads and erasers. Mechanical pencils make a finer and sharper line
than wood pencils, and don't require you to stop and sharpen them from
time to time (though you do have to stop occasionally to change the lead
in a mechanical pencil, that occurs much less frequently than needing to
sharpen a wood pencil).

If you have allergies (dust mites or mold, depending on the age and
history of the documents you'll be examining), you might want to include
three or four disposable surgical masks.

Some archives allow you to take a music player and headphones, as long
as you keep the volume low enough not to be heard by others. This makes
a day in an archive more of a pleasure!

A laptop or notebook computer is wonderful to have! There are very
small notebooks now, such as the Asus Eee PC, which are just perfect for
archives, because the footprint is very small, so the computer does not
hog the tabletop space. I was so glad I bought an Asus Eee PC to take
to Seville with me when I researched at the General Archive of the
Indies. Many of those documents are huge, and the boxes they come in
are large-big, too, and then there is also a computer terminal at each
station for ordering documents -- so the very small notebook computer
took very little space. It was wonderful.

Also some archives do not allow notebooks or binders or such like. In
that case, you might want to take either legal pads or 5x8 index cards.

You might want to check with the particular archive to see what their
requirements are.


Karen Rhodes
Middleburg, Clay County, Florida

This thread: