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Reference Desk Page Sections: Background · The Crittenden-Walczak Collection · Previously Asked Questions |
Most libraries have a Reference Desk, which Wikipedia defines as “a public service counter where professional librarians provide library users with direction to library materials, advice on library collections and services, and expertise on multiple kinds of information from multiple sources.” This is often the point of contact for access to the reference section, a collection of library materials that can't be removed from the library so that they will always be available to library patrons.
Our reference collection is “The Crittenden-Walczak Collection,” which is all of the books & materials not posted to The Crittenden Automotive Library due to copyright or time limitations.
We can research answers to questions from The Crittenden-Walczak Collection and post them online, since simple facts can't be copyrighted.
Throughout The Crittenden Automotive Library's pages there are Bibliography lists if there are any books that are known to exist on that Subject or Topic. If you reached this page because the Availability note had a link to the Reference Desk, it's part of the collection and we may be able to provide the information you need!
To ask a question, just e-mail admin@carsandracingstuff.com with "Reference Desk" in the subject line and we'll see what we can find. Please note that we can not send copies of copyrighted information to you.
The Crittenden-Walczak Collection
Under the soft glow of green LED lights, the combined collections of Bill Crittenden and the late John Walczak includes nearly one thousand physical books, thousands of magazines & catalogs, as well as racing programs, original photographs, magazine clippings, DVDs, collector cards, booklets, pamphlets, brochures, and other documentation. Most of it can't be added to the Online Digital Collection at CarsAndRacingStuff.com due to copyright or time.
There are also the beginnings of an organized collection of digital content, up to 376GB as of the last check, that hasn't also been posted online due to copyright.
The oldest book in the collection is The Law of Automobiles by Xenophon Huddy published in 1919. It celebrated its 100th birthday on the shelves here in Woodstock. The oldest magazine is the January 1962 issue of Today's Motor Sports.
Most of the books are picked up from the clearance sections of various Half Price Books locations or library book sales throughout the Chicagoland area. This means that it doesn't have the age of some of the more esteemed automotive libraries, but it's a fun way to find new materials inexpensively as well as fitting with the Library's principles of preserving all of automotive history and preserving the present for future historical research.
The catalogs section includes several boxes of those classified ad papers that used to be more common in grocery store and gas station entrances before the internet wiped most of them out. Of course the vast majority of them came from northeastern Illinois.
There is also an extensive collection of automobile manufacturer brochures from the early 2000s, built from attending the Chicago Auto Show for multiple years. John was a prolific collector of NASCAR cards & memorabilia. Bill subscribed to National Geographic and kept the old lobby magazines from various security jobs, eventually clipping out all the ads & articles about cars to create a shelf of materials sorted into binders.
It's a great collection put together from more than three decades of divergent interests and random chance, and it's still growing.
The following are open questions that have been asked of the Reference Desk, organized by year and vehicle model and subject. If you have anything to contribute to answering them, e-mail admin@carsandracingstuff.com and I'll add it to the post.
