"During the last century and a half, the Great Lakes shipping companies have printed a substantial amount of material relating to their operations. These publications are mainly sailing schedules, tourist promotional pieces, annual reports, and so forth, primarily issued in the form of pamphlets and brochures. This literature is scattered all across North America in scores of public repositories, quite often uncataloged in ephemera collections. This situation makes it very difficult for someone to find Great Lakes navigation paper, particularly if they are looking for a specific item.".