Library of Congress Stumped; Two Leads Come Up Dry

With no word yet from Dr. Martin, I made some phone calls in an effort to locate the Feb., 1955 Homebuilder's Monthly.

As suggested by the Fairfax County librarians, I got in touch with the Library of Congress. The reference librarian, Arlene, told me she would look into it and call me back. She gave me her direct extension as well. Funny ... I once worked in Congress and made official requests to the Library of Congress all the time. It seemed a little strange to have a staff member looking up something for me personally.

As promised, Arlene called back promptly, with "surprising" results. The Library of Congress did not have Homebuilder's Monthly in its collection, so she had done a search of academic library collections. Only one, Princeton University, contained partial holdings, but they only went back to 1961-1962. Well, at least that saves me from fruitless phone calls to university libraries around here.

Arlene suggested contacting the National Association of Home Builders. The Fairfax County librarians had suggested that too, so that was the next step.

"Our library is for [association] members only," was the first response I got when I called NAHB. However, when I explained what I was looking for, they put me in touch with their librarian anyway.

I explained my request again to the NAHB librarian, Linda. She told me she would look into it and call me back. She asked for my name and phone number.

"And what organization do you represent?"

I felt completely naked as I told her I was representing myself. I briefly wished I was still in Congress representing Senator So-and-so. I was sure my lack of clout would send the request to the bottom of Linda's work pile. So it was a pleasant surprise when she called back later the same day!

Unfortunately, Linda only found two individual issues in the association's library and neither were the one I was looking for. She did note that "people felt differently about archiving then." Seemed like an ominous note to my prospects for finding this publication. But I can't let this scavenger hunt divert me from my mission: to locate the Customliner!

My thanks again to Arlene and Linda.