legends · 4 min read ·
Call Slips
A record-office reader finds his own call slips in a box he did not order, and an accession form.
**Kerrow Record Office — Reading Room Call Slip (Reader's copy)**
**Reader:** M. Harlan · **Reader's ticket:** 4471 · **Date:** 5 Nov
- **Item · Reference · Description · Status**
- 1 · DD/12/1 · Estate papers, Hollin Farm, 1788–1842 · Issued
- 2 · DD/12/2 · Rate books, Dunmere, 1850–1870 · Issued
- 3 · DD/12/3 · Parish register, St. Cuthbert's · Issued
· · ·
**Reader's notes (M. Harlan)**
I came to the Record Office to research a farmhouse. A one-day visit. I filled in the slips at the desk and a young man in a grey cardigan took them through to the strongroom. They came back in twenty minutes in a grey archive box with a green label.
I read for five hours. The papers were dull. A field named *Long Meadow*, a boundary dispute, a list of pew rents. At half past three I returned the box and asked for three more.
· · ·
**Call slip (second visit, 6 Nov)**
- **Item · Reference · Description · Status**
- 1 · DD/12/4 · Letters, Hollin Farm, 1840s · Issued
- 2 · DD/12/5 · Plans of farm buildings · Issued
- 3 · DD/12/6 · Diary of a farmer's wife, 1861 · Issued
*Reader's notes: DD/12/6 turned out to be a slim notebook in brown ink. I read the first page. The writing was small, fluent, intimate. The farmer's wife wrote about the weather, a cow, a visit from the curate. I read for an hour. On page 14, she wrote: "A reader came today. A Mr. Harlan. He sat at the table and read my diary. I was glad of the company."*
I put the notebook down and looked around the reading room. A dozen readers, heads bent. The young man in the cardigan was at the desk. He was looking at me.
· · ·
**Call slip (third visit, 7 Nov)**
- **Item · Reference · Description · Status**
- 1 · DD/12/7 · Account book, Hollin Farm · Issued
- 2 · DD/12/8 · Photographs, 1890–1910 · Issued
- 3 · DD/12/9 · Reader's call slips, 5–7 Nov · **Issued**
*Reader's notes: I had not requested the third item. It was brought to my desk in a grey box. The reference means nothing to me. DD/12/9. I did not call for it. When I opened it I found a bundle of slips, tied with tape.*
*They were my slips. My name. My ticket number. The dates, in my handwriting. Six slips, for each of the first two days. And a seventh, for the third day, which I had not yet filled in.*
· · ·
**Reader's notes (continued)**
I read through them. They are exactly as I wrote them. In the Status column, a ticked box. Each issue is stamped. But in the margin of each slip, in a hand I do not know, small, upright, in pencil, a note.
*Day 1: Arrived 09:40. Quiet. Reads well.*
*Day 2: Arrived 09:35. Stayed past closing. Took no notes.*
*Day 3: Arrived 09:30. Asks too many questions.*
The last slip, the seventh, was blank except for the pre-printed lines. At the bottom, in the same pencil, one line: **Item to be requested: yourself.**
· · ·
**Call slip (fourth visit, 8 Nov)**
- **Item · Reference · Description · Status**
- 1 · DD/12/10 · — · Issued
*Reader's notes: I wrote nothing on this slip. It was already filled in when I sat down. The description column is blank. The reference is in pencil.*
*The young man brought the box. It was a big one, grey, with a green label. It was sealed with tape, and the tape had been cut and re-stuck. On the label: **M. Harlan.** In my own handwriting.*
*I opened it. It held a single sheet. It was a form, folded in three. It was printed in the format of the Record Office's own accession register.*
· · ·
**The form**
**Accession: DD/12/10.** Name: Harlan, M. Date of birth: not recorded. Date of arrival: 5 Nov. Date of withdrawal: **not applicable.**
**Condition on receipt:** good. Minor wear. Some foxing.
**Notes:** Reader proved to be a satisfactory acquisition. To be retained permanently, in the reading room, on the third bay of the left-hand shelf. To be consulted by appointment.
*Underneath, in smaller type, a line for a signature, with a pencil cross against it.*
*I sat there with the form in my lap. The young man was standing at my elbow. He was smiling very gently. He asked if I would like him to take the box back to the strongroom, or whether I should prefer to remain.*
*I looked at the clock. It was 14:12. The reading room closes at 16:30. I could see the door.*
*I said that I should like to remain. I said it, I think, in a clear voice. It seemed to me the correct response.*