Official Class 4 Air Force Publication

Dear Editor,


I know I come up with doozies sometimes and I hope this one isn't as complicated as my last. :) 

I have an Air Force magazine/journal specifically published by the USAFSS (United States Air Force Security Service) This branch was not well known because of the nature of the work they did. Nor was it all that large. After a number of consolidations and re-organizations USAFSS is now part of the 25th Air Force.  Needless to say, this magazine is not well known.


In the June 1965 issue is an article about my dad. I own 3 original copies of this volume. 

This is the information on page 1.
 

The Spokesman Vol. 7 No. 9, June 1965

“The SPOKESMAN is an Official Class 4 Air Force publication, published the first of each month in support of Air Force Information objectives.”

“The SPOKESMAN is printed by the International Printing Co., 911 E. Euclid St. San Antonio, Texas. It is edited by the Office of Information, Headquarters, USAF Security Service.

“The SPOKESMAN uses Armed Forces Press Service and Air Force News Service materials in addition to accounts of personal activities of individual Air Force members.”

“Material for the SPOKESMAN should be mailed to reach the editor’s desk not later than the tenth day of each month. 

I go back and forth as to if it is a magazine or a journal.


This is the first layer of the citation I have come up with:

Office of Information, Headquarters USAF Security Service, editor, "Maintained 3.5 Index NCO Enters Honor Society," The Spokesman, Official Class 4 Air Force publication, (June 1965): 19.

Should I add the publisher & location to the first layer?

For the second layer I could cite it as a Family Artifact as I own 3 copies of this edition or if I can discover where it is archived would it be proper to cite where it is archived or add a note to the citation using the family artifact option?

I have sent an email to NARA asking if they can tell me if the magazines have been archived and if so where.  They responded with:

"Please provide the date the publication was created and printed for distribution and the type of content/information it contained. The great majority of records in our custody are not searchable by title or name, but rather are arranged by office, date, type, decimal filing system, along with other classifications."

I forwarded the information from page 1 posted above to NARA and am hoping that will be enough for them to locate the magazine. If not my next step is to contact the  25th Air Forces historian.

Does the fact that NARA can not search by title change how the citation is formatted?

 

Thank you,

Ann C Gilchrest

Submitted byEEon Sun, 09/22/2019 - 22:36
Ann, amid periodicals "journal" is usually reserved for those that publish the results research, while "magazine" is used for those that publish news and lighter or more general "informational" articles. As to whether the publisher should be cited, see EE 14.12. For Layer 2, citing it as an inherited artifact would be the simplest approach. Involving the National Archives in your citation would seem to be necessary only if you wish to record for posterity how thorough your research is.

Thank you. I will use the inherited artifact for layer 2. 

I did receive a response from NARA Annex 2. They do not have them but suggested I contact the Library of Congress and the Department of the Air Force's Records Manager. To the list, I plan on contacting the historian for the 25th Air Force. Adding the information I find to my working notes. I do hope someone has them and other issues can be researched.