Some things depend on where you are. In Ohio, for example, anybody can walk into a public university & use the collection, no questions asked. (Your Tax Dollars at Work) Private schools can restrict access, but in practice, they usually don't notice another busy searcher in the stacks. (I really hope the spate of muckers shooting up college campuses doesn't get this kind of casual access shut down.) Checking books out at colleges is a different matter, but guest cards are frequently available. If you don't want to get a guest card, you could browse the shelves, make lists and then ask your local public library to get an interlibrary loan on the things you want. I've heard that other states are more restrictive, but some are even looser than we are.
Worldcat is a delightful tool. Go to www.worldcat.org Put the name of your book or author into the search box. Give it your zip code when it asks for it. Hit search. Your results will be given in order of increasing distance from your location. You then plan your road trip, or decide to swamp the local ILL librarians. <G> All libraries are not on Worldcat, as it is a paid service that small libraries don't always have in the budget, but libraries big enough to have really deep costume collections are generally in it, at least in my neck of the woods. Mary Piero Carey _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
