Index to "Lost and Found" Now Available

One of Sydney's tasks as the BDC's Library Assistant now involves indexing local history material. Her pilot project was the Beaufort Today's "Lost & Found" newspaper column since it was short-lived and had one primary author. She modeled her index on the one that long-time BDC docent Laura Lewis created for Gerhard Spieler's local history column that ran in the Beaufort Gazette for more than two decades. We use Laura's spreadsheet index of Spieler's columns to assist customers and for our own staff research purposes on a regular and recurrent basis. Sydney performed her task so well that she has since gotten another indexing assignment. (You'll be informed when that one gets completed, too.)

"Lost & Found" was a weekly Beaufort Today newspaper column about local history. The newspaper ran for a total of 61 weeks (Jan. 4, 2008 - Feb. 27, 2009). A "Lost & Found" column was included in all but three of the newspaper issues. The primary author of the column was Evan R. Thompson, Executive Director of the Historic Beaufort Foundation at the time. Additional authors included Elizabeth Garrett Ryan and Maxine Lutz, also of Historic Beaufort Foundation. The Beaufort District Collection holds a physical copy of each issue of the newspaper.

The Master Article index is followed by an index of articles by category:

Architecture Beaufort Arsenal Beaufort Volunteer Artillery The Bluff Civil War Churches and cemeteries Downtown Beaufort Historic Beaufort Foundation Historical Beaufort Figures National Historic Landmark District National Park Service Northwest Quadrant The Old Commons The Point Port Royal Restorations Verdier Family and house Here's an excerpt of the Master Article List: You'll notice columns for the issue date and page; the article title; the author; and then a lot of keywords that relate to the content of the column. Inside the Research Room, BDC staff will be able access this index on your behalf to identify additional information on a variety of topics.  Let's say that you are interested in buildings in the Northwest Quadrant. Thompson wrote four articles about that area that staff could tell you about over the telephone or via email:  This way you could make an informed decision about a visit to the Research Room to review the material. Since heavy box lifting is involved, it would be good for us to know that a researcher is coming ahead of time. Please contact us to make the arrangements: bdc@bcgov.net ; 843-255-6468.   Sydney is currently working on updating the "Answer Man" index by Dennis Adams to include every article he wrote for the Beaufort Gazette as a columnist during his tenure as the Information Services Coordinator for the Beaufort County Library system. Adams indexed most of his work but Sydney will complete the indexes he provided to us in and around her duties of direct customer service to the BDC's researchers. Stay tuned for that announcement.