221JANAP_web

72 AMERICAN PHILATELIST / JANUARY 2021
APRL Notes
BY Scott Tiffney
Librarian & Director of Information Services
stiffney@stamps.org
IT
goes without saying that the year 2020 was a
challenging one for all of us. COVID-19 introduced
us to regularly wearing masks, social distancing,
contact tracing, and herd immunity to name a few
societal shifts. Here at the American Philatelic Center and
the American Philatelic Research Library it was no different.
From being closed entirely for the initial two months of the
pandemic to being open with a partial staff, finally by the
end of the year, a little more normality set in with the library
and the library staff.
Keeping in Contact Through Service
Along the way we repositioned our services to focus on
those requests that came in remotely via mail, phone and
email, even going so far as to introduce curbside pickup and
drop-off services for those members that could come by the
APC. Here at the APRL, the staff made every effort to reach
out and keep in contact with our library patrons through
the new work environment – and the response received
from library users was overwhelming. In the months after
the staff returned to the library, there was a steady increase
in the number of reference and research requests received
Figure 1. Library requests have been slowly but consistently
increasing.
A Year of Digital Growth
“The chief beauty about time is that you cannot waste it in advance.
The next year, the next day, the next hour are lying ready for you.
You can turn over a new leaf every hour if you choose.” -Arnold Bennett
by the library, each month surpassing the next (Figure 1).
So too, back in June it was decided to open the library’s
digital collections database, APRL Digital, to both members
and non-members. The results were dramatic. Normally
reserved as a benefit of APS membership, due to the pandemic
and the fact that many of our members and regular
library visitors could not use the library and its resources in
person, the APRL provided free access to the database, giving
everyone the opportunity to research their own library
requests from home. Starting in late June and early July,
the database saw an exponential increase in the number of
unique users using the database (Figure 2). In addition to
that, roughly a third of those using the database in the last
six months of 2020 were non-APS members, giving the APS
and APRL the opportunity for member recruitment.
Continuing the Outreach and Looking Ahead
The growth of remote interactions with the library at
the close of 2020 has the APRL looking forward to 2021 and
the opportunity to provide even more content and access
for our users. As has been stated in the past, our mission
for APRL Digital is to grow both the size and scope of the
database, which in turn will grow the digital presence
of the APRL. In the former case, the APRL has received
permissions from societies and organizations for 34
complete journal runs, which are currently in a queue
to be uploaded to the database. These journals are in a
variety of formats – some are still in paper form, some
in paper and digital form (i.e. pdf file format) and
finally some are in complete digital form. Each journal
provides our staff with unique challenges to prepare the
complete run for upload to the database but the APRL
is excited by the opportunity to grow the journal content
of the database significantly in 2021.
In terms of the scope of the database, we are also
looking in 2021 to grow the types of research resources
that are in the database to include a larger number of
books, exhibits, maps, photographs, and video files.
In the case of exhibits, we have received permissions
from 54 exhibitors who participated in the 2020 Virtual
Stamp Show presented by the APS back in August to