Recorders wishing to submit their documentation to HABS for transmittal to the Library of Congress are especially encouraged to follow the procedures outlined here. Photography captures detail, textures and many other types of views either too time-consuming or impossible to draw accurately. Photography also provides information on current furnishings, visual context for the drawings and histories, as well as a sense of massing through perspective views with greatly reduced distortion. Historical reports take the form of general overview reports or individual building histories. Overview reports investigate the broader architectural context of the structure or site, and focus on historical background or architectural trends.
Individual histories explore all relevant historical and architectural facets of single structures.
After the field work has been completed, all field notes and completed documentation are brought to the Washington office for editing, reproduction, and finally, transmittal to the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress . There it is archivally stored with an anticipated shelf-life of five hundred years. The documentation is copyright-free, and reproductions are available from the Library of Congress . The techniques described in this handbook have been developed and refined since the establishment of HABS in 1933. Because this handbook cannot address every conceivable measuring problem, recorders are encouraged to use their ingenuity, as well as their knowledge of mathematics and surveying in solving these problems.