ICC document collection at Denver University

[nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]

I am researching the historical relationship between the railroads and
Appalachian development patterns and poverty, as a critique of the going
paradigm in economic geography.   Being in Denver for the holidays, I
naturally wanted to check out the Denver University collection of ICC
documents.

I share some pointers about this huge document collection.
The most important is to contact Christopher Brown of the Penrose Library
before going to Denver or the University, to make sure he can assist you
when you are there.
cbrown at du.edu
Telephone:  303 871 3404

Let him know as specifically as possible what kind of information you hope
to find.
Anticipating with some time a sure visit on your part, he could be attentive
to your needs before you arrive, for example putting an eye out for relevant
documents while they are cataloging.

He is a very informative and helpful reference librarian, in charge of
governmental documents.


Additional tips:
DON¨T take advantage of holiday or vacation periods (when the people in the
know are absent or are very occupied), as I did;
DON¨T take the reference clerks word for anything in the Law Library (where
I started, unfortunately);
DON´T be discouraged by finding a sizeable collection on ICC (including all
the annual reports, some books about the ICC and the like; which many law
libraries around the country should have) in the Law Library and being given
a resounding "no" to my entreaty that there must be a lot
more than this in the University.

The immense collection was moved from Washington in 1996, and the Penrose
Library just now getting rolling on the cataloging, going full speed during
five months
to date.   This will take several years.
They are starting with the numerous books, are using empty and accessible
shelf space for journals and some governmental documents which will then be
cataloged, and the rest including archival materials (about 20% of the total
collection) is in boxes and will be last.
Apparently (I didn´t have time to check), there is a complete collection of
state utility annual reports of all the States, at the Colorado Supreme
Court library.   The DU collection has fairly complete collections for some
States (not Appalachian States from what I could see).

For my needs, Christopher showed me a collection of documents with primary
data regarding cases (mostly cross references from the annual reports), in
the Penrose library (not the Law Library).   And his library has lots of
governmental technical reports on specific subjects, like pricing of coal
transport.   This material predates and was cataloged before the arrival of
the huge document collection which they are getting their teeth into.

Since I didn´t get to Christopher until the day before my departure, I was
limited in time to really get into the collection.   If you have questions I
might be able to answer, check with me at warren13 at racsa.co.cr (Costa Rica).
But Christopher Brown is a much more reliable source at this point.