About the Inventories:
Usually, our inventories describe collections that have been left largely in the arrangement they had when in daily use as active files. Inventories do not describe the arrangement or content of individual items; they are not catalogs or indexes (though they include an index to the container list). Even the most detailed guide will necessitate research to locate specific documents. This is an aid to research, not a substitute for it.

These guides reflect the dynamic nature of the Center's processed manuscript and archival holdings. Individually and collectively, the inventories show the degree of arrangement and description of the Center's holdings. We hope to update these inventories when resources permit us to describe collections at a level of greater detail. Also, we expect to produce additional inventories as we arrange and describe more of our collections. We can make these inventories available in electronic format at no charge to the user who supplies the diskette (in either size) and uses the data file only for the research described on the completed User Registration Form.

Long-distance reference communications: These collections are located at the Center of Southwest Studies in the Reed Library building on the campus of Fort Lewis College. Interested researchers should phone the archivist at 970/247-7126 or send electronic mail to the archivist at: Ellison_T@fortlewis.edu .   Click here to use our  E-Mail Reference Request Form.  The Center does not have a budget for outgoing long-distance phone calls to answer reference requests, so if you do not provide an email address for our response you will need to be willing to accept a collect call from the Center.

Doing your own research:  This descriptive material for collections at the Fort Lewis College Center of Southwest Studies is provided to inform interested parties about the nature and depth of the repository's collections. It cannot serve as a substitute for a visit to the repository for those with substantial research interests in the collections.

Making photocopies:
The Center's goal is to provide the optimum service that can be offered to our user audience, and to provide the same level of service to each person who asks.  Thus, the reference staff is limited to making up to 50 photocopies per research request per month for researchers whose sole access to the Center of Southwest Studies is via the World Wide Web.

Copying requests must specify the collection name, box, and folder from which material should be copied. Reference staff will begin copying documents in the first folder requested and stop when 50 copies have been completed. Reference staff will not assess the relevance of the contents of a folder to the requestor's research interests. The price for this service is calculated at $.15 per page plus a minimum charge of $4.00 shipping and handling. All such copy orders must be prepaid (by check or money order made payable to the Center of Southwest Studies) and must be accompanied by a signed copy of the repository's standard copyright agreement. Please print this agreement and mail it to the following address (faxed signatures are not acceptable): Todd Ellison, Archivist, Center of Southwest Studies, Fort Lewis College, 1000 Rim Drive, Durango, CO 81301-3999.

If you need additional copies, we may assist you in that extended work by giving you the name of a student wage slave  who you could hire to make those copies.  You would be paying that person their rate (probably $.99 per hour, billed in quarter-hour increments, which would include their time in counting the number of copies, removing metal fasteners, making the copies, organizing the copies into folders so you will know which folder each is a copy of, and computing the charges you owe) and you would be paying the Center of Southwest Studies a separate check for the photocopies @$.15/copy.  Your payment to the student for their hourly pay for their work for you would be something you negotiate with that individual.

Again, the Center must receive advance payment and the completed agreement form for each photocopy order--both are due before the Center can make the photocopies.

Researcher information page

Digital images from the collections

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