Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends

1515 Cherry Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102-1479

(215) 241-7202

Records Working Group


POLICY ON THE REPRODUCTION OF MEETING RECORDS

Microfilm copies of basic records of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting are available at the Quaker Collection at Haverford College and the Friends Historical Library at Swarthmore College. The presumption is that scholars will use the records there. A scholar who can demonstrate special needs may request that a microfilm copy be made for his/her use. A letter to the head of one of the repositories, who will forward the application to the Records Services Group of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting or other constituent body, must show the scholarly need to consult the records and explain why having a microfilm copy is the most efficacious way of proceeding. The repositories will cooperate with the researcher's home library to provide a duplicate copy of the film via interlibrary loan at the borrower's expense. Ownership of the film remains with Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, and the Director of the Friends Historical Library or the Curator of the Haverford Quaker Collection must grant permission before any quotations from the records are published.

Authority for permission to copy the records of the constituent meetings of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (i.e. monthly meeting records) remains with the individual meeting. Application for obtaining a microfilm copy of these meeting records must be made to the holding repository for forwarding to the individual meeting. The Records Committee encourages monthly meetings to grant permission for microfilm copies for legitimate scholarly use or for deposit in local historical societies. In many cases, ownership of meeting material remains with the monthly meeting.

Access to certain categories of records is restricted to preserve the privacy of individuals. In such cases, the repositories will not provide copies of the records either by microfilm or elsewhere. The repositories may also limit the number of paper copies they will provide for any one researcher. (Approved by the Records Services Group, June 10, 1999)

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