In a desperate attempt to regain access to an electronic database to which my university library used to subscribe but no loner does, I put in a request to the library for the purchase of said subscription.

I don't have particularly high hopes for this request. The library actually owns the information in another form -- microfilm. But the stuff I'm looking for is very small and very hard to find, and I don't have exact citations. It's a matter of scanning through issue after issue of a daily newspaper. The electronic version of it allows me to search by word. I can turn up hundreds of leads in minutes, as opposed to something that is likely to take months.

So yesterday, I got a perfunctory request from the acquisitions librarian to whom my request had been assigned. He needed more information. Why this item and why now? So I sat down and wrote a small treatise on the importance of this database at this time in my work. I ended it by trying to explain why I thought the library needed this in general, not just for me. It was calculated to make my case well, but I am also fairly passionate about this issue. The digitalization of historic newspaper archives has changed the way I do my research. It has allowed me to write the kind of history I always wanted to write. And I think it has the potential for changing the way history is taught and written about for the better by allowing researchers to spend less time hunting (at least for certain kinds of things) and more time analyzing.

Still, the reply I got from the librarian was a bit of a surprise. It actually made my day. I was expecting the usual bureaucratic, "Thank you for the information. We'll get back to you when we know more" kind of message. Instead I got:

You do a wonderful job of providing me with precise and telling detail. I am using your text in full to argue for the acquisition of the XXX archive and I hope we will be successful. A purchase of this nature (though of obvious value) is quite costly, and it's the end of the fiscal year. It would require special funding. Your eloquence will be, however, unquestionably influential. We'll keep you advised.

It's a little thing, but I'm always happy when a bureaucratic action turns into a personal interaction. I feel like I've won one for the little guy. And it's always nice to know you have a friend on the inside. I still don't have high hopes for my success, but I feel a lot more warm and fuzzy about it.

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