FIELD RECORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS 

W HETHER OR NOT they have been used in the 

preparation of a report, all field notes, field 

maps, photographs, annotated aerial photographs, and 

other field documents acquired by Survey employees 

in connection with their official duties are Government property and are valuable parts of official 

records. When they are no longer being used for a 

project, these materials should be deposited in the 

Field Records Library or the Photographic Library, 

both of which are in Denver. The librarians will 

catalog and index them so they will be available to 

other Survey and non-Survey users. 

The Survey Photographic Library is the official 

depository for ground-based and oblique aerial 

photographs. The collection contains about 250,000 

photographs consisting of color and black-and-white 

prints and their corresponding negatives, color 

transparencies, and lantern slides, dating from the 

1860's to the present. Many photographs from this 

collection have been published in textbooks or other 

outside publications. Materials are identified with the 

photographer's name and accession numbers and are 

indexed by subjects and geographic area. Prints by 

each photographer are mounted with captions in 

separate albums under the individual's name. Negatives are stored in acid-free or lignin-free jackets; 

color negatives and transparencies are placed in inert 

plastic containers. Negatives and transparencies are 

filed in a low-temperaturehumidity environment. 

Questions regarding proper handling and storage 

of photographic material for project use should be 

directed to the Photographic Library. Before photographic material is transmitted, the Photographic 

Library staff should be contacted for special instructions at USGS Photographic Library, MS 914, Box 

25046, Denver Federal Center, Denver, CO 80225. 

General instructions for submitting photographic 

material to the Photographic Library are as follows: 

Employees should submit color transparencies, 

negatives, and extra prints of photographs that 

are technically good and that clearly show the 

subject matter. Published photographs taken by 

Survey employees should be submitted, whether 

from Survey or non-Survey publications. Photographs should be filed as soon as the employee 

has no further use for them on the projects for 

which they were taken, normally not later than 

the completion of the report on the project. 

Survey employees may borrow negatives and 

slides or order prints at any time. 

Manuscript processing units and visual-information-services groups should submit all color 

transparencies, negatives, and extra prints of 

photographs used in exhibits or publications after 

the material has been returned from the printer. 

An author who requests the return of the original 

material may obtain duplicate transparencies or 

copy negatives. These procedures will ensure that 

the Photographic Library is able to fill requests 

for copies of photographs that have been used in 

publications or exhibits. 

3. Photographs should be accompanied by concise 

descriptions. Geologic and special features obvious 

to the researcher but not to an untrained viewer 

should be identified. Such information facilitates 

the selection of the best picture for a given purpose and helps ensure that pictures published outside the Survey are correctly captioned. Location 

and date should be specified; so should any reference to place of publication. A copy of the caption 

marked with the Photographic Library accession 

number assigned to the photograph will be 

returned to the photographer, if requested. 

214 Field records and photographs 
The Field Records Library is the depository for the 

original recorded data of completed field projects. 

Survey regulations require that all field material be 

deposited in the library, including such items as field 

notes, field maps, and annotated aerial photographs. 

The Field Records collection consists of more than 

15,000 notebooks or files, 2,400 map groups, 2,000 

folders, and 60,000 aerial photographs. Records 

dating back to the Hayden Survey of 1871 are 

cataloged by project under senior author or field 

party chief and are additionally cross-referenced by 

geographic area, publication, subject, and project 

assistants or coauthors. Survey researchers may borrow any material or review it in Field Records. The 

public may examine the material after getting approval from the Assistant Chief Geologist, USGS 

Central Region, MS 911, Box 25046, Denver Federal 

Center, Denver, CO 80225. 

Before depositing field material, employees must 

label all records and complete a form providing 

project information and the nature of any proprietary 

data in the records. This information is vital to cataloging the material and is essential to filling requests 

for the records. Before transmitting material, contact 

the USGS Field Records Library, MS 914, Box 25046, 

Denver Federal Center, Denver, CO 80225, to obtain 

forms and mailing instructions. 

Field Records Librarv 215