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----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Dear Jim, I am the Architecture Librarian at Auburn University, and our library encludes a slide library for the use of faculty and students. You should concentrate on gaining information from public libraries with this resource, as the type of user base, and their needs, will determine the mission of your slide library. We use our slides to support the faculty with images for use in classroom settings. The students also study from the slides mounted on a wall lightboard, and we digitize some slides for web based access also. There is an enormous investment required in time, staff and materials. Film, photography and processing fees, or the purchasing of slide sets, are very expensive. Storage cabinets can be expensive and are critical for the correct care and maintenance of the slides. Light tables are useful tools for viewing the slides as well. Any collection must be organised and cataloged to be useful to anyone. Management of the collection can be a full time job if it is heavily used. I would suggest a careful consideration of the real service you could provide with a slide collection. Does the need justify the staff time and effort, maintenance time and materials expense? What funding are you using? Will it increase or dry up? Without future expansion in the works, to assume this project seems to be inviting eventual failure. Plan carefully, build in stages, and be aware of the need for proper care and maintenance if you start a slide collection in your library. Several excellent books are out there on slide collection management-commonly used is : Slide Libraries: A Guide for Academic Institutions, Museums and Special Collections Betty Jo Irvine and P. Eileen Fry Libraries Unlimited Inc 1979 (second edition-maybe a more current one out there now)