From: Emily-Jane Dawson [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2014 1:31 PM
To: Maps, Air Photo, GIS Forum - Map Librarianship
Subject: Re: Usefulness of old gazetteers?

While I can't speak to the usefulness of the specific War Department gazetteers Ken asked about, I can say this about day-to-day reference work at my own library: 

We use our 19th- and early 20th-century gazetteers regularly to help patrons with genealogy research -- shifting borders, place name and language changes and other small details can be very challenging for family historians to track down, and old gazetteers really help.  Part of the reason they're so great is that they're reasonably accessible to non-specialists.  

--Emily-Jane Dawson

Multnomah County Library, Portland OR

On Tue, May 13, 2014 at 9:43 AM, Angie Cope <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

From: Ken Rockwell [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2014 10:57 AM
To: Maps, Air Photo, GIS Forum - Map Librarianship
Subject: Usefulness of old gazetteers?

The Marriott Library is currently discarding or redistributing lots of decades-old government documents.  Among the candidates for withdrawal a number of older gazetteers published by the “War Department, Army Map Service, and later by Defense Mapping Agency. I can’t say I’ve used any of them for a long while, so I’m amenable to their withdrawal, but I thought I’d check with colleagues on whether there’s still a reason to keep them around.  Any comments?

---Ken Rockwell

University of Utah