Colleagues,

I've never had a question like this before.  Our sister organization, the NY State Museum is interested in knowing precisely when the 1893 Annual report of the New York State Museum was checked into our Library collection ... OCLC #6435228.   We have the serial catalog card, but there is only a check-mark, no date.

In explanation, a Museum botanist offers this ...  "We need to establish, as precisely as possible, the date of publication of one of the Annual Reports of the State Museum (no. 46, for 1892).  The cover date is 1893, but we don't know if it actually appeared that year, or when in that year or a subsequent one it was available.  This is significant, because it contains the original description of a new species of fungus that was also published around the same time by another worker in another journal.  We need to establish which has priority.

We're trying to locate copies in libraries that bear the date of receipt, to establish when the volume was actually out.  There is a publication that lists a couple such records, and they indicate 1894, but no greater detail."

If this mystery holds any fascination for those of you who hold the title, please let me know if you think that your records indicate a precise check-in or receipt date.

Thanks in advance!!

Sincerely,

Bob Dowd
NY State Library
Albany, NY 12230
rdowd@mail.nysed.gov