How many of you borrow from the ANA library? I got my first book from them in the mail today and was highly delighted. The book was about modern German and Austria commemoratives and contained so much good information that it could have taken me years to find it all on the web. I have all the Austria and West German coins listed (although not the East German ones) and have wondered for years about what was commemorated and did not have time to research them all. If you have not utilized the library I strongly recommend that you do.
The library is a wonderful benefit for belonging to ANA. Although many older books and catalogs are being digitized and put online, there are a huge number that are still paper only. I've used the ANA library for books, but even more to do research using old catalogs. Only cost is for library mail rate to you and media mail back. ANS has a great library too, but you have to go to NYC to use it. Cal
NNP only gets you stuff that can be legally scanned. Want a copy of Davenport's book on German Talers from 1500-1600? Two choices: Pony up between $450 and $700 for a used one or borrow it from the ANA library for the cost of postage.
The Newman Portal is great, but as mentioned, only items out of copyright or where copying has been permitted can be there. Try to find Bowers and Merena, Rarcoa, Superior, etc. catalogs there. You can find them in the ANA library. Another problem with the Newman Portal is that some of the scans are really low resolution. So low that for some catalogs, it's difficult even to read the date and mint mark on coin pictures in catalogs. As far as trying to identify specific coins, forget it. Cal
True the Newman Portal is not perfect or all inclusive, I just like mentioning it as I do feel it is a great step towards the future and making everything more accessbale for people.
I used to use it a lot more in the past and was always happy. I also used to use it to check reference books I was thinking about purchasing, especially if they were expensive.
